Nothing Better To Do
by CrazieDasie
Summary: While at number 12 Grimmauld Place, Hermione and Ginny develop crushes on Sirius Black. Possible pairings of: SBGW, RLHG, SBHG, RLNT, CWNT, RWHG (finished)
1. Ginny

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: This story takes place before HP more like during the beginning of that book, before Harry arrives. Enjoy! :D

Ginny stood admiring her reflection in her mirror. She loved the way she looked; especially her red hair. She flipped her hair off her shoulders and ran her fingers through it.

Ginny pulled out her favorite pair of muggle jeans and a black tank top. She got dressed as quietly as she possibly could; not wanting to wake her sleeping roommate. She slid her feet into her shoes and tip-toed across the room to the door. Hermione, sleeping in the bed closest to the door, grunted and tossed over onto her side as Ginny stepped on an unusually loud floorboard.

Ginny slipped out of her bedroom and into the hallway. One would never know, from the quietness of that room, that the day was all ready started and quite busy for the rest of the occupants of number 12 Grimmauld Place. Ginny checked her watch. It was 9:47a.m. She smiled to herself, hoping that everyone would be done eating breakfast by now. And by everyone she meant her family members. She didn't want them present when she had a personal mission to accomplish.

Passing her brother's bedrooms, she took notice that their doors were open, and that the rooms were empty. When it came to food, a male member of the Weasley family was never late.

Ginny walked as quiet as she could down the rest of the staircase, not wanting to disturb the portrait of Mrs. Black. Once she got past her, and was in the clear, she ran the rest of the way into the kitchen.

"But, mum," said George. "We have better things to do than clean today."

"Like what?" Mrs. Weasley said, as she presented Fred and George with two buckets. The three of them were in the kitchen, and judging by the fact that their mother was making them clean all ready, Ginny concluded that they were finished eating. Fred and George mumbled to themselves as they sulked out of the kitchen.

"Morning Mum," Ginny said brightly to her mother.

"Well good morning Ginny. Breakfast is on the table."

Ginny made her way to the dining room, when Ron came bursting out of it still chomping a piece of toast. "Is Hermione....up?" he asked, in between mouthfuls. Ginny shook her head. "I'll go wake her then," Ron continued. "I'm bored." Ginny sent him a toothy smile; meant for her more than him though. She felt a wave of happiness take her over now that she knew her brothers were all occupied and wouldn't be anywhere near her.

Pushing through the door, Ginny scanned the room. Her happy mood disappeared when she saw her father sitting in there, sipping his coffee and reading the Daily Prophet. As her eyes moved from her father to the next body at the table, her heart rate sped once more and butterflies now dwelled deep inside her stomach. She walked over to an empty seat, locking her eyes on her object of lust; Sirius Black.

"Morning Ginny; sleep well?" Mr. Weasley asked his daughter, as he pushed the plate of eggs closer to her. Ginny nodded her head and smiled sweetly.

"Hi Sirius." Ginny said, in her most grown-up sounding voice.

"Mornin'." Sirius winked at Ginny, which sent her into a fury of shivers.

_Oh! I love it when he winks!_ Ginny squealed, inside her head. She tried hard to control her blushing as she pilled her empty plate with food.

Mr. Weasley started up a conversation with Sirius about an article that he was reading in the Daily Prophet. Ginny sighed to herself upset that she lost an opportunity to talk or flirt with Sirius. She kept herself busy with her food, but every time Sirius spoke her stomach contracted with joyous nerves that stopped her from digesting anything she put in her mouth.

There was just something so sexy about Sirius to Ginny. She loved listening to his deep voice hardened from twelve years of not using it in Azkaban Prison. His hair was a shadow of how it looked when he was young, but it still hung silkily in his face giving him a sexy rugged kind of look. Ginny saw a picture of Sirius when he was in the first Order of the Phoenix about fifteen years ago, and she couldn't help but take notice of how incredibly gorgeous he was back then. Even after the years he spent in prison left their marks on him, he still held on to his underlying handsomeness.

Ginny took into account that Sirius was much older than her and that he was a wanted convict, but she didn't care. Besides Harry Potter, no man made her heart skip a beat more than Sirius and his playful personality.

Sirius and Mr. Weasley stopped talking and a silence fell across the room. Ginny, completely disgusted with eating, started playing with her leftovers. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Sirius watching her trace circles across her plate with her fork. Smirking to herself, she sighed loudly and overdramatically.

"Is there something wrong, Ginny?" her father asked her.

"No," she replied, resting her chin in her hands. "I'm just bored."

Sirius looked at her and nodded his head. "Me too," he said, trying to make his voice not sound frustrated.

Ginny looked Sirius dead in the eyes, "Do you want to do something?" she asked him, twirling her fingers in her hair.

Sirius's eyebrows shot up. He tried to stop himself from laughing. He knew by the tone of Ginny's voice that she wasn't talking about going to play chess.

"Because I'm up for anything," Ginny added, taking an unusually seductive bite out of a piece of bacon.

Sirius's eyebrows were now lost underneath his hair. He blushed slightly and looked over at Arthur who was glaring at his daughter in a way that said that he too understood Ginny's true meaning.

"Ginevra," Mr. Weasley began to say in a warning voice, but he was cut off by the presence of his wife.

"Arthur," Molly said. "Errol brought this for you." She handed him an official looking letter.

"It's from the office," he said getting up. He sent Ginny one last worried look before he left the room.

"Aren't you hungry, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked Ginny while she began to clear the table.

Ginny shook her head and pushed her plate towards her mother. She quickly ducked her hand back under the table. Her body was so packed with nervous feelings that it was causing her hands to shake.

"So, Ginny," Sirius said leaning forward and smirking. At the moment he found fueling Ginny's fire to be the most entertaining thing in the world. "What should we do today?" he asked in his deepest voice.

Ginny giggled uncontrollably, causing Sirius to love his sport even more. Ginny was about to say something back when the door to the dining room burst open and Hermione stepped through it. The first thing Ginny noticed about Hermione made her completely hate her friend.

"Oh how cute! You two are dressed alike today!" Mrs. Weasley smiled at Ginny and Hermione, pointing out the very thing that was making Ginny seethe with anger.

_Yeah_, Ginny thought sarcastically. _Real cute._


	2. Hermione

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

"I love you Hermione Granger." Sirius said, taking Hermione's face in his hands. He bent forward and softly led her into a passionate, deep kiss. Hermione's skin erupted in goose pimples as she felt Sirius's hands run down her back. All of a sudden it started to rain. Large drops landed in Hermione's eyes causing Sirius's face to blur. His black silky hair became red and the bright blue sky above them turned into dismal beige. Hermione rubbed her eyes, trying to get them to refocus, as she felt another splash of rain on her face.

Hermione opened her eyes. "Ron! What are you doing?" Hermione was in her bed. Ron stood over her with dripping fingers and a glass of water in his hand.

"It's nearly 10 o'clock, Hermione." Ron said, wiping his fingers on her blanket. "Time to get up."

"Thanks for interrupting my dream." Hermione said, sitting up. She smiled as she thought about her delicious and unrealistic fake kiss.

"Sorry." Ron said, rolling his eyes. "Hurry up and get dressed. I'm bored."

Hermione got out of her bed and walked over to her dresser. She stopped abruptly in her tracks and spun back around. "Um, Ronald?" she asked, raising her eyebrows and expecting Ron to know what she was going to say.

"Yeah?" Ron sat down comfortably on Hermione's bed.

"Get out."

Ron made his face into a pout and than ran out of the room laughing. "I'll be waiting here!" he yelled, before the door slammed him out of sight.

Turning back to her dresser, Hermione began to think about what to wear. She pulled out a pink t-shirt but threw it back in the drawer; then she picked it up again, folded it, and placed it neatly back in its place. She reached for her red collared shirt, but felt it made her look too much like a boy; and she wanted to appear as womanly as possible, without over doing it. Hermione ran through almost every shirt in her drawer and found each one unsuitable and ugly.

She had two shirts left. She held a white tank top with a pretty yellow flower up to her body. "I don't think he'd...**why am I trying to impress Sirius Black!?**" Hermione screamed. She covered her mouth with her hand when she remembered that Ron was standing right outside her door. She placed the white tank back in the drawer and grabbed the last item. It was a black tank top. She threw it on and pared it with a pair of jeans.

_Perfect_, she thought. "Oh stop it!" she said out loud, shaking her head. She frowned looking at her reflection. "It's official; I'm insane."

Hermione hated the fact that she had developed an unstoppable crush on Sirius. It began the moment she stepped foot into number 12 Grimmauld Place. There was something about his rugged, I've-escaped-from-prison look that made her knees weak. Plus, he generally was a nice and sweet man. Not to mention funny and sarcastic; Hermione found every aspect of Sirius's personality oddly appealing. Even when he was acting depressed and grumpy, he still seemed to drip sexiness.

Hermione was a smart girl though. She didn't like to dwell on her weird feelings towards Sirius. First, he was much older than her and second, he wasn't exactly the type of person she should be setting her heart on. _I'll admit it though,_ she thought. _That was a good dream_.

"What took so long?" Ron asked her, as he got up from his seat on the floor.

"I didn't know what to wear."

"Does it matter?" he asked. Hermione rolled her eyes. Sometimes she felt that Ron was so thick. "Well," he continued, once they were safely away from the portrait of Mrs. Black. "What should we do today?"

Hermione laughed slightly. "Right now, I'm going to go get some food," Ron sighed. "Go see what Fred and George are up to. I'll come find you after I've eaten, ok?" Ron smiled brightly at Hermione and the two parted ways.

Hermione sprinted to the dining room. She was starting to feel weak with hunger. She burst into the room and immediately felt annoyed by Ginny, who was obviously giggling and flirting with Sirius. Ginny looked away from Sirius and glared at Hermione.

"Oh how cute! You two are dressed alike today!" Mrs. Weasley said, smiling at Hermione and Ginny. Hermione quickly noticed that Ginny was too wearing a black tank top and jeans. But to make matters worse, she was sitting all by herself at the table with Sirius. _Like Sirius would ever be interested in you, Ginny._ Hermione thought. _Wait a second, what on earth am I thinking. He wouldn't be interested in either of us._

Hermione's sane and smart side told her to go sit down next to Ginny and be a good girl, but the other half of her brain—the side infatuated with Sirius—wanted to make Ginny as jealous as possible.

Hermione walked over towards Sirius. Seeing her coming, Sirius pulled out the seat next to him and patted it. "Morning Hermione."

She sat down next to him and smiled wide; more because she caught Ginny's angry look than because she was sitting next to her object of lust.


	3. The Bet

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Thanks for the lovely reviews Larka, Bethje, lelegurl9 and Jelli-baby!! And Larka-I'm a Lupin girl too....so he won't be missing from this story!!

A blur of orange ran across the table and pounced, tail wagging, onto Sirius's lap. While, Crookshanks purred loudly, Sirius started scratching behind the cats ears with both of his hands. Crookshanks stroked his head under Sirius's chin and curled up against his chest.

Hermione couldn't help but laugh; even Crookshanks was infatuated with Sirius.

"I think I've got a boyfriend," Sirius said smiling at Crookshanks and laughing at his own comment. Hermione stuffed her mouth with food and giggled. She reached her hand over to pet her cat. Instead of feeling fur though, her fingers came into contact with skin and she withdrew her hand back; ignoring the burning feeling left on her fingers. "Sorry," Hermione squealed.

Sirius burst out laughing. "That's all right Hermione," he said. "You can pet my hand if you want," he added with a smirk.

Hermione giggled uncontrollably. "Ouch!" she screamed suddenly, bringing her leg up to her chest and rubbing her calf.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Hermione," Ginny said, in a mock concerned voice. "Was that your leg? I thought it was the tables'."

Hermione and Ginny both glared at each other making Sirius feel slightly uncomfortable. "I need to go feed Buckbeak," he said glancing at the clock on the wall and pushing Crookshanks off of him.

Hermione pulled her chair back and stood, allowing Sirius room to get out.

"Thanks," he said. "You know? I like this whole look you've got going on today." He pointed his finger up and down Hermione as he strutted out of the room.

Hermione smiled toothily at him and pulled herself back up to the table.

"What!?" Ginny shouted at Hermione, once Sirius left. "I'm wearing the same thing!"

Hermione shrugged her shoulders, smiling triumphantly and stuffed her mouth with food once more.

"What do you think you're doing anyways?" Ginny asked, completely annoyed.

"What do you think _you're_ doing?" Hermione asked back.

"I asked you first!"

"So?"

"So!?" Ginny screamed, causing Crookshanks to hiss and duck under a chair. "Answer the question!"

"I don't think I'm doing anything, Ginny. Calm down."

"Sorry," Ginny whispered, smoothing her hair back behind her ears. "You should know though, I've claimed Sirius."

Hermione leaned forward, confused. "Excuse me?"

"I've claimed him. He's mine."

Hermione laughed. "I don't think so."

"Think again then," Ginny said in a deadly tone. "I liked him first."

"Ginny, Sirius isn't yours,"—Ginny opened her mouth to retaliate—"He's not mine either." Ginny stared blankly at Hermione. "Sirius is 33 and we're 13 and 14. Do you really think he'd go out with us?"

"No," Ginny said, pouting. "But it's fun to flirt with him."

"I know!" Hermione said, giggling. "Especially since he obviously flirts back."

Ginny joined in with Hermione's giggling. "What do you like best about him?" she asked.

"Um...his hair; I love his black hair."

"Please don't tell me you have a crush on Harry too." Ron said; he had walked into the room and caught the end of Ginny's and Hermione's conversation. He stood in front of the table, glaring at Hermione.

"No!" Hermione shrieked, shaking her head,

"Oh good!" Ron said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Who were you talking about then?"

Hermione stared wide-eyed at Ron, blushing deeply.

"Snape!" Ginny blurted out. Ron and Hermione shot her confused looks. "We were making fun of Snape."

"Yeah," Hermione said turning back to Ron and mentally praising Ginny. "I just forgot to add greasy."

Ron laughed. "Come on. Mum wants you two to come help clean."

Hermione and Ginny received their instructions from Mrs. Weasley and they made their way into one of the upstairs bedrooms. They were put in charge of cleaning an old, stained rug. The two hadn't spoken since they left the dining room.

"_You_ still like Harry, right?" Hermione spoke up finally.

Ginny shrugged her shoulders. "I guess; maybe a little."

Hermione stopped what she was doing and gaped at Ginny. "You don't like him," she said slowly.

"Well," Ginny said, putting her wand in her pocket. "Harry doesn't like me, so, why should I keep chasing him? I need to move on."

"And Sirius Black is the perfect person to move on to," Hermione said, sarcastically.

Ginny laughed. "Oh, shut up." Ginny sat down on an old chair and lounged back comfortably. "What about Krum?"

Hermione walked over to where Ginny was and sat down in a similar chair next to her, leaning her back against the arm rest and swinging her legs over the opposite one. "What _about_ Krum?" she asked.

"Isn't he your boyfriend?"

"No!" Hermione shrieked in the same manner as when Ron asked her if she liked Harry.

"I thought you just sent him an owl?"

"Well," Hermione said, sighing. "We're friends. He'd like to be more but I just don't like him like that."

"Like how you like Sirius?" Ginny pressed.

Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes. "I don't like Sirius, Ginny. It's just some stupid crush. I don't plan on attaching myself to him and following him around like some love sick little girl."

"Good," Ginny said standing up and walking back over to where she was cleaning. "Because I do; and there's only room for one love sick little girl in this house."

Both of them started laughing. "Let's not forget Ginny," Hermione joined Ginny on the rug. "He did like my outfit and not yours."

Ginny stuck her tongue out at Hermione. "I bet he likes my hair better than yours." Ginny said, eyeing Hermione's hair in mock disgust.

"Of course he does._ I_ like your hair better than mine." Hermione said, pulling at one of her curls.

Ginny flipped her hair back snobbishly and laughed. Hermione and Ginny both went back to their work.

"Hey," Ginny said after five silent minuets passed. "Which one of us do you think Sirius really would like better?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and planned on not responding.

"I bet it would be me," Ginny sighed. Hermione made a sound in the back of her throat. "Yep; actually I would bet 500 _pretend_ Galleons that he would fall in love with me and not you."

Hermione surveyed Ginny. "I don't bet," she said in an annoyed tone.

"We're going to do it!" Ginny proclaimed and Hermione stared at her like she didn't understand English. "We're--me and you--are going to find out which one of us Sirius would fall in love with first."

"Um, no we are not," Hermione stated, shaking her head vigorously.

"Come on" Ginny whined. "Is there anything better to do around here?"

Hermione thought about this for a moment. There really wasn't anything better to do around there. "All right," she said, to Ginny's delighted squeals. "May the best girl win."


	4. Stomach Ache

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews!!! :D

Ginny flopped down on to the cold kitchen floor and lay down on her stomach. "Ugh," she moaned.

"Everything all right, Ginny?" Hermione asked worriedly, seeing Ginny laying on the ground as she walked into the kitchen.

"Yeah," Ginny said slowly, sitting up. "My stomach hurts. I ate too much at dinner."

"I know," Hermione said, sitting down across from Ginny on the floor. "You barley stopped to breath."

Ginny laughed, holding her stomach. "Well, I couldn't get my self to eat at breakfast, we didn't eat lunch...I was starving!"

"I guess this means operation 'Get Sirius' is going to be canceled?" Hermione asked hopefully and wishing that Ginny would nod her head in agreement; but seeing Ginny's eyes, Hermione knew that that wasn't going to be her answer.

"Watch and learn, my dear friend," Ginny said. She stood up and walked over to the kitchen counter, sitting back down on a high stool. She smiled at Hermione before she put her head down on the counter, and buried it in her arms.

Hermione laughed and stayed on the floor. She leaned back on her hands. "I can't believe I have nothing better to do than watch this," she said, causing Ginny to laugh so hard she almost fell off her stool.

"Kreacher!?" Sirius shouted, as he entered the kitchen. "Have you girls seen Kreacher?"

Hermione looked up at Sirius, who stood towering over her. "No, I haven't Sirius, sorry," she smiled up at him.

"That's ok, Hermione," Sirius said, returning her smile. "I caught him trying to smack Buckbeak with some old umbrella, but he ran before I could get close enough to grab him, the stupid, annoying little jerk."

Hermione was about to defend Kreacher's sanity, when a large moan stopped her from speaking.

"Ginny?" Sirius said in a concerned voice. He walked over to the counter. Ginny moaned again and rubbed her belly with her right hand, while her head rested on her left arm.

"What's the matter, Ginny?" Sirius asked; he gently pushed Ginny's hair out of her face. Hermione's mouth dropped slightly with shock.

Ginny looked up at Sirius with big, puppy dog eyes. "I don't feel well," she said, her voice trembling.

Sirius pulled a stool up next to Ginny's and sat down so close to her that their knees touched. "Tell Dr. Black what the trouble is, dear," he said smiling and making Ginny giggle.

"My stomach hurts," she said.

Sirius laughed. "Well, Ginny, you did eat half of your mother's chicken all by yourself."

Ginny turned slightly red. "I was hungry," she whispered, wrapping her arms around her stomach.

"Do you want me to go get your mother?" Sirius asked, rubbing Ginny's arm.

Ginny's eyes flashed over to Hermione, who was trying her hardest not to laugh at this spectacle.

Sirius's head turned slowly towards Hermione's direction when he noticed Ginny's eye shift over to her.

Hermione looked back at Ginny who widened her eyes, mentally telling Hermione to say something.

"Mrs. Weasley isn't home, Sirius," Hermione said, which was the truth. Mrs. Weasley took the boys to Diagon Alley with her to help her replenish the cleaning supplies.

"My dad isn't here either," Ginny sighed, drawing Sirius back to her. Ginny laid her head on the counter, staring up at Sirius, and continued to rub her stomach.

"I'll take care of you, Ginny, don't worry," Sirius said in a reassuring voice. "Come one," he added, getting off his seat. Sirius grabbed Ginny's arm and draped it around his neck, than he scooped his arm under her legs and lifted her off the stool.

Hermione saw Ginny's eyes glitter with joy as Sirius carried her towards the door.

"I'm going to take Ginny up to bed, Hermione," Sirius said, over his shoulder. "If anyone wonders where I am," he added. Hermione saw him smirk at Ginny as he left the room with her in his arms.

Hermione stared at the door that they just left through for a whole two minutes. _I am NOT jealous. I am NOT jealous,_ she repeated over and over in her head.

Ginny sat on her bed for a half an hour waiting for Hermione to come see her. She was just about to get up and go find her, when the bedroom door opened and Hermione walked in clapping.

"Bravo," Hermione squealed, as she sat on Ginny's bed. "Your stomach doesn't hurt at all, does it?"

Ginny shook her head and smiled mischievously. "Where have you been?" she asked.

"Giving you time to rest," Hermione responded, rolling her eyes. "Sirius told me to."

Ginny bounced up and down in place. "He kissed my forehead before he left," she said in a dreamy voice. "Jealous?" she added, returning to her normal triumphant tones.

"I've decided that I don't care anymore," Hermione said haughtily.

Ginny stared at Hermione with disappointment spreading across her face. She was having fun, and Hermione had to ruin it. "Oh, come on," Ginny whined. "You can't just stop liking Sirius that fast."

"Yes, I could," Hermione said, getting off Ginny's bed and pulling something out of her pocket. "And I've made you a detailed list of reasons _why_ I don't like him."

Ginny grabbed the list and began to read it.

When Sirius came back from bringing Ginny up to her room, he asked Hermione if she wanted to help him look for Kreacher. Hermione was overjoyed to help him.

While they searched, instead of just enjoying Sirius's company, Hermione tried to discuss SPEW with him. Sirius disagreed with every point Hermione brought up. She got so annoyed she abandoned him, went back into the kitchen, found some blank parchment and made her list.

"Hermione," Ginny said, when she finished reading the list. "Some of these reasons are the same things just reworded."

"What!?" Hermione shouted incredulously.

"Number one," Ginny read out loud. "He is mean to house elves. Number eight he treats house elves meanly."

"Oh," Hermione whispered.

"Nice try," Ginny said, throwing the parchment at Hermione.

"_Evanesca_," Hermione shouted, pointing her wand at the parchment lying at her feet. It disappeared completely.

"You're just jealous," Ginny continued. "Because Sirius kissed me."

"He didn't kiss you, Ginny," Hermione said, annoyed. "He kissed your forehead."

"Fine; your _forehead_ is jealous of my _forehead_."

Hermione sighed loudly and flopped head first on to her bed. "Ginny," she said, flipping over so that her voice could be clear. "I am so much smarter than this."

Ginny rolled her eyes overdramatically and clicked her tongue. "Hermione," she said, as if she was trying to sell her something. "Besides cleaning and listening _unsuccessfully_ to Order meetings, what else is there to do around here?" Hermione opened her mouth, but Ginny stopped her from speaking. "And don't even mention our summer homework!"

Hermione smiled at the fact that Ginny knew what she was going to say. "All right, maybe I was a little, tiny bit...jealous," she said quietly.

Ginny sighed. "Wasn't Sirius so sweet to me?"

"Yeah," Hermione agreed, in a dreamy voice that made her face cringe when she heard it. "What did he say to you up here?" she added, returning to her normal voice.

"That's between me and him," Ginny giggled.

"Ok...let's not forget the fact that we are witches and that I can make you talk," Hermione said, smiling and pulling her wand out of her pocket.

"You're not that mean, Hermione," Ginny said, gripping her wand also.

"Nor do I care that much about what he said," Hermione said, putting her wand away.

They sat in silence for a minute. "Did Sirius smell good?" Hermione asked quietly. She remembered how Krum always had a strong cologne smell about him.

"No," Ginny laughed. "He smelled like Buckbeak." Hermione also burst into laughter.

The two girls continued to talk loudly about Sirius. Neither of them noticing that Hermione never closed the door after she came into the room. They also didn't notice the violet-hair covered head peeking into the room.


	5. Innocent Remarks

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Sorry its been a while since I've updated this. I've been in love with writing Love Bites and I've forgotten all about this one, lol! Thanks for the reviews and enjoy! :D

"What's going on?" Hermione whispered, descending the stairs the next morning and finding Ron and the twins huddled at the bottom with flesh colored strings hanging from their ears.

"Order meeting," Fred whispered, handing her an Extendable Ear. Hermione sat down next to him and threw the other end of her extendable towards the kitchen door.

Not paying attention to anything but the mumbles she was straining to hear from inside the kitchen, Hermione barely noticed Ginny appear next to her and grab an extendable from George.

"Shh," Ginny said, snapping her head around and giving Hermione a dirty look.

Hermione mouthed 'what?' and brushed Ginny off.

"Shh!" Ginny said even louder, pointing her finger at Hermione. Hermione looked past Ginny and gave Ron a crazy confused glance, but he too told her to be quiet with a loud shush.

"I'm not talking," Hermione said.

"No," Ginny whispered to her; "you're stomach is."

Hermione all of a sudden noticed the low rumbling noise in the background and realized that it was her stomach growling. She yanked the extendable ear out and pulled it away from the door.

"I can't understand what they're saying," she said.

"I can," Ginny said, pushing the extendable into her ear further with her finger. "And Mum's coming."

All five of them pulled the extendable ears away from the kitchen and galloped back up the stairs into Ron's bedroom.

"I know you lot were listening to the meeting; so don't try to hide from me," Mrs. Weasley's voice came booming up the stairs. "Come and eat breakfast!"

"How come she knows everything?" Ron asked, as he left the room.

"Because she's Mum," Fred and George said together.

Hermione began to follow the boys out. She turned around before she left and saw Ginny quickly stuff something back into her pocket.

"What do you have there?" Hermione asked, eyeing Ginny's pocket.

"Nothing," Ginny said in a sing-song voice. She skipped past Hermione and out of the room.

"Wait!" Hermione shouted after her. She ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. Hermione managed to grab Ginny's arm before she went into the dining room.

"I destroyed that!" Hermione said, pointing at the tip of parchment sticking out of Ginny's pocket.

"Don't worry, Hermione," Ginny said, rolling her eyes. "It's not your lame list."

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. She knew she had destroyed her list last night, but she wouldn't have put it past Ginny to recreate it.

Realizing that Ginny left her alone in the kitchen, Hermione dashed into the dining room. She didn't want to give Ginny a chance to embarrass her.

The smell of porridge and strawberry pancakes filled the room. Ginny and Hermione dove at the last two empty chairs at the end of the table, next to Tonks and across from Sirius and Lupin.

"Are you going to be able to eat?" Hermione asked Ginny, indicating Sirius's presence with an obvious head nod towards him.

Ginny gave her a dirty look and shoved a fork full of strawberries into her mouth.

Tonks, who was watching Hermione and Ginny out of the corners of her eyes, stuffed as much food into her mouth as capable, hoping it would stifle her laughter.

"Can you pass the porridge please, Professor Lupin?" Hermione asked. Lupin nodded his head and placed the bowl in front of Hermione.

"Can you pass it to me next, _Professor?_" Sirius asked sarcastically, making Lupin roll his eyes.

Ginny started cackling with laughter and slapping her hand on the table top. "You're...so funny...Sirius," she said, in between her giggles.

It was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes, as Sirius started laughing at Ginny.

"I see you're feeling better?" he asked.

Ginny leaned her elbows on the table and was about to swoon out a compliment when, to her surprise, Hermione beat her to it.

"Thanks to you she is, Sirius. Maybe you should have been a healer," Hermione said, assuming the same head-rested-on-hand position that Ginny was in.

Sirius chuckled slightly mostly at the confused and appalled look on Lupin's face. "Thanks, Hermione. That's a great compliment, coming from someone as smart as you," he said.

Hermione smiled brightly and blushed. She quickly returned to her food. After being called smart, Hermione immediately felt embarrassed at acting so stupid.

Tonks stopped eating all together and began watching Sirius and the girls with intense interest.

Ginny pulled the piece of parchment out of her pocket. Hermione suddenly sat up straight with alert nervousness.

"I made this for you, Sirius; to thank you for taking such great care of me last night." Ginny handed the parchment over to Sirius with obvious shaky hands. To Hermione's surprise on the parchment was a picture that Ginny drew of Sirius walking outside in broad daylight through a colorful garden; Ginny bewitched the picture so that the drawing of Sirius was actually walking around.

Hermione suppressed the urge to laugh. Ginny started to blush as a silence spread around their side of the table.

"Wow, Ginny," Sirius finally said with bright eyes. "I love it! You're really good at drawing; this is beautiful," he added, pointing out the perfect bluish purple sky with a bright orange sun that Ginny drew.

Sirius and Ginny shared a smile filled moment, as Sirius folded the picture up and placed it inside the pocket of his robes, patting it securely.

Hermione's face dropped in shock. She thought Ginny's picture was somewhat childish, but actually it was pretty ingenious; which really annoyed her.

"Sirius, Lupin," Kingsly Shacklebot called from across the other end of the table. "Listen to this." Sirius and Lupin leaned over towards Kingsly, giving him all of their attention.

Hermione pulled Ginny closer to her. "That was cheap, Ginny," Hermione hissed in her ear.

Ginny laughed slightly evilly. "What?" she asked in an innocent voice. "I'm just trying to gain points," Ginny said, lowering her voice to an almost silent whisper; "by playing on the fact that Sirius wants to be free, hence the picture; and in doing this he'll know that I know how he truly feels and what he's thinking, and then he'll see me as a person he can talk to because I understand him. Therefore making him fall for me and, as a result, proving that Sirius would fall in love with me before you." Ginny took a long breath. "It's all part of my plan."

"It's a dumb, long winded, plan," Hermione whispered back.

"Well, I'd like to see you come up with a better one."

"I don't intend on coming up with a plan,"—Hermione paused, still pondering if she wanted to lower herself down to Ginny's level—"I plan on winning with brains and character." Hermione decided that she would rather act childish than lose at something.

"Well, in case your large brain has knocked out your ability to hear, Sirius did say that he loved my picture; loved!"

"He loved your _picture_, Ginny, not you; just like he kissed your forehead and not you. You really need to learn how to differentiate between yourself and objects belonging to you."

"You're just jealous!" Ginny said in a voice so quiet it sounded like squeaks and not words.

"Jealous? I can draw a picture too, you know! And it would be ten times better than your little stick figure!"

"What's the matter with you two?" Mrs. Weasley said, addressing Hermione and Ginny. They immediately realized how ridiculous they must look, hissing and squeaking at each other.

Mostly everyone had left the room during Ginny and Hermione's spat; only Sirius, Lupin and Tonks remained at the table. Mrs. Weasley stood over them casting a large shadow across their faces.

"Everything's fine, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said, shooting one last dirty look at Ginny.

"I need your help in the kitchen; come on now," Mrs. Weasley said, indicating that the girls follow her into the kitchen.

"I'll come help too, Molly," Tonks said, springing out of her seat and out the door, before Mrs. Weasley could tell her no.

"Now," Sirius said loudly, making Ginny and Hermione halt in their tracks. "No more fighting, you two." He pointed his finger between Hermione and Ginny, pretending to be angry with them.

Hermione giggled and began to walk out of the room.

"We weren't fighting," Ginny said to Sirius. Hermione, who was half way out the door, stopped walking immediately. "Hermione here was just trying to explain to, innocent little me, what she meant when she said that you were hot." Ginny wagged her eyelashes at Sirius and pouted her lips innocently before Hermione's hand came shooting back around the door and yanked Ginny out of the dining room.


	6. Some Fun

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I'm sorry, again, that I haven't updated this in a while. I'm gonna try to update it at a more timely fashion. :D

"What did she just say?" Sirius asked pointing at the spot by the door previously filled with the silhouette of Ginny Weasley.

Tonks burst through the same door, roaring with laughter. Before it closed, the loud nonsensical screaming of Hermione echoed off the kitchen walls, and into their ears. Tonks sank down into the chair across the table from Remus and buried her shaking head in her arm.

Sirius stared at her with a permanent stamp of confusion masking his face. Slowly, his grey eyes narrowed. "What do you know?" he asked Tonks.

Pulling herself up, Tonks made a sound like a mix between a groan and a giggle, as she realized that she laid her arms across a plate of half-eaten pancakes.

She looked at Sirius, and shrugged. "I…they're like my friends, Sirius. I'm not going to tell you what I heard," Tonks's voice was quiet and almost unintelligible. Her eyes shifted to Remus.

Remus's light brown hair, streaked with signs of early graying, hung down limply over his eyes, which were darting back and forth across a copy of that morning's Daily Prophet.

"Tonks!?" Sirius shouted.

Remus's eyeballs lifted and pierced Tonks with their soft blue glow. Tonks swallowed loudly.

"They like you," Tonks said, in a monotone voice that no one would recognize as her own; her eyes were still locked with Remus's.

Sirius's loud bark-like laugh broke their stare. "What?" he chocked out, his face splattered with disbelief.

Tonks caught Sirius's infectious laughter, and started to giggle herself. "I heard them talking last night, Sirius. They fancy you; but don't tell them I said anything."

"Heh, heh, heh," Sirius laughed, flipping his dark hair over his shoulder. "Did you hear that, Moony?" Sirius elbowed Remus in the ribs. "I still got it."

Remus rolled his eyes and started to neatly fold his newspaper up.

"Thirteen years in prison and I can still make the ladies drool," Sirius said, sitting back in his chair, propping his hands behind his head.

Tonks pursed her lips. "I think you're over exaggerating this. They just have a school girl crush."

Sirius waved Tonks's remark off. A mischievous smile started to pull at his mouth.

Remus shifted in his seat, to allow himself to comfortably cross his legs. He glanced over at Sirius, and shook his head. "Don't do anything, Sirius. I know that look." He pointed a finger at Sirius's face.

"What?" Sirius said, trying his hardest to appear innocent. After a brief unblinking staring contest between the two, Sirius's face fell blankly. "How do you know I'm going to do something?"

"Sirius," Tonks spoke up. "They're young girls! Don't go playing around with their feelings."

"Exactly," Remus chimed in, nodding his head. "Ginny and Hermione are at an impressionable age. You're going to give them a complex; they'll end up bitter towards all men."

Sirius continued to stare at Remus. "You my friend," he finally said, pushing Remus's nose in with his forefinger; "are jealous."

"Jealous?" Remus asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yep; jealous," Sirius leaned back again in his chair and looked at Tonks. "He's always been jealous of me," he added, jabbing his thumb towards Remus.

Tonks rolled her eyes at Remus.

"Sirius, I'm not jealous of you," Remus said, mildly. "I like being able to leave the house."

Tonks threw her head back; her hair flashing every color in the rainbow, as she scrunched her face up with laughter.

Sirius folded his hands around his knee and looked down. He couldn't help but also laugh at Remus's unusual outburst of sarcastic insulting; that, and the fact that he didn't need to see Remus's face to picture the look of shock and apology.

"I'm sorry, Padfoot," Remus said, patting Sirius's hands.

Sirius slapped Remus gently on the shoulder, and smiled. Nothing was going to break his spirits at the moment.

He wasn't going to admit it but he didn't feel proud or smug that these little crushes were revealed; instead he felt nostalgic. His mind whirled back to his years at Hogwarts, when his face wasn't stretched by a long period in prison, his mind not saddened by deaths and betrayals. When he, literally, frolicked around with James, and chased girls. When he would sit in a room and know that every eye attached to a female, (unless their last name was Evans), was also attached to him.

He felt young again, handsome again, thinking that Ginny and Hermione thought about him like that. His brain, bored with his life, wanted nothing more at the moment than to witness two young girls fall in love with him; even if it was wrong and unrealistic. Was there really anything better to do?

"So, Tonks," Sirius said, sitting forward. "Even Hermione fancies me?"

Tonks, who was busy using the back of a spoon to check out the color of her hair, nodded her head.

Sirius made an approved face and smiled slyly. "I like smart girls."

"Oh, Merlin," Remus moaned.

"What, Moony? Did you want Hermione?"

Remus's eyebrows shut up under his bangs. "Sirius! Are you nuts? They're half our age!"

Sirius laughed and rose from his chair. "I'm just joking! I'm not going to do anything."

"Yes you are," Tonks said, also getting up.

"Sirius…" Remus started, hoping that that was enough of a warning for his friend.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius exclaimed. "Do you really blame me for wanting to have some fun? Can _you_ think of anything better to do around here?"

Remus opened his mouth.

"And don't say cleaning. I'm sick of cleaning."

Remus shook his head, laughing. "This is just very…immature. We're grown men; and Ginny and Hermione are going to forget about you as soon as they see boys their own age." Remus looked away from his friend.

Sirius always, from the moment they met, had this power over him. One look in the eye, and Remus knew exactly what Sirius was feeling; and Sirius knew that soft puppy dog eyes and a sweet smile always changed Remus's mind on things. "I understand, Padfoot," Remus sighed. "Just don't take this too far. You can make them giggle, but don't make them fall in love with you." Remus pulled a disgusted face, like someone made him down a whole goblet of his Wolfsbane in one sitting.

Tonks stood next to Sirius and laughed. "Who would fall in love with _this_, anyway?" she asked, picking up a strand of Sirius hair with her thumb and forefinger, examining it with the same look of disgust that Remus had.

Sirius pulled away from his cousin and smiled. "Now, I wonder if I remember how to kiss…"

Remus's smile disappeared into a scowl. "This is a crime I think," Remus said. "You can go back to Azkaban just for thinking about what you're planning."

"Come here, Tonksie," Sirius said, beckoning her to him, his left eyebrow wagging up and down.

Tonks started to slowly walk towards him. "Why am I moving closer to you?" she asked out loud. "Nothing good can come from that look."

Sirius grabbed Tonks's face and laughed. Tonks screamed like someone just shouted "Avada Kedavra" at her.

"Remus! Stop him!" Tonks screamed; bending her head backwards, away from Sirius's puckered lips.

Remus stood up, laughing, just as Sirius dropped his hands from Tonks face.

Tonks jumped around, shaking her hands. "That was too gross, Sirius. My mother would have had an aneurism if she walked through that door at that moment."

Remus tried to slip quietly behind Sirius towards the door. Sirius knew his plan from before he made a step, however.

Sirius reached his arm out and grabbed Remus by the back of his jumper, stopping him from leaving. Remus's shoulders fell defeated, and he allowed Sirius to pull him back.

Turning around, Remus looked down at Sirius who was laughing like a mad man.

"Come on, Moony. Don't you want to be my first kiss after fifteen years of forced abstinence?" Sirius winked at Remus, and tried not to laugh.

"How did we get from Ginny and Hermione having crushes on you, to me and you snogging?" Remus asked, as he tried to squirm away from Sirius.

Tonks stood by the kitchen door. A searing pain ran up her sides, as she swayed back and forth watching Sirius lunge at Remus's mouth.

"Padfoot! That's enough!" Remus screamed right after Sirius kissed his chin, causing the laughing Tonks to trip over her own feet and onto the kitchen floor.


	7. Muggle Style

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Thanks everyone for the reviews!!! Glad you all like this little story! :D

"What did you just _say_!?!?" Hermione screamed at Ginny, after she yanked her out of the dining room and into the kitchen.

Hermione's shrill voice was immediately followed by the sound of glass shattering and shooting all over the room.

"Tonks!" Mrs. Weasley shouted at the violet-haired witch, who had clearly lost her concentration at all the commotion. Tonks looked down at the mess on the floor, and burst out laughing. "Just leave it," Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Go in the other room. I can handle this."

"I can't believe you! What on earth possessed you to say such a thing!?" Hermione continued screaming; ignoring every thing else in the world but Ginny's comment about her thinking Sirius is hot, and her raging anger.

Tonks tried to stifle her laughter as she gingerly snuck past the girls and slipped through the dining room door.

Ginny stared at Hermione, and bit her lip. Finally she allowed the pent up laughter to spill out of her system; this, of course, only made Hermione's blood boil even more.

"You're laughing? Why are you laughing? You've completely embarrassed me! How could you!?"

"Hermione Granger! What is the matter?" Mrs. Weasley grabbed a hold of the pointer finger that Hermione was dangerously wagging in front of Ginny's glowing face. "Why are you screaming?"

Hermione looked right into Mrs. Weasley's eyes, and sighed. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Weasley. I'm just a little upset," Hermione said. "But, it's nothing," she added in a huff, with a disgusted look at Ginny.

"I don't know what has gotten into you girls today, but I for one am tired of your fighting and bantering!" Mrs. Weasley dropped Hermione's finger and looked back and forth between the two girls.

"Hermione just can't take a joke, Mum," Ginny whined, her eyes forming a round, innocent shape.

"This isn't a time for joking, Ginevra," Mrs. Weasley corrected. "Now, since you two are done eating, I suggest that you talk over your problems while cleaning the dishes from breakfast."

"What!?" Ginny wailed, stamping her left foot. Hermione nodded solemnly, and pulled her wand out of her pocket.

"No talking back, Ginny! Move," Mrs. Weasley pointed to the sink. "And in hope that this will teach you two to stop fighting," Mrs. Weasley said, as she waved for Hermione to put her wand away. "You will wash those dishes the muggle way, and no 'buts' missy!"

Ginny roughly pushed past her mother, and stamped over to the sink. Hermione smiled weakly at Mrs. Weasley and went over to join Ginny.

"Better us than Tonks, at least," Hermione said, tip-toeing through the field of glass shards scattered around the sink.

Mrs. Weasley waved her wand and reformed the strips back into their former shape, a shiny round bowl, before she left the kitchen.

"You had to go ballistic, didn't you," Ginny said, leaning on the counter and peering into the sink. "We'll be here washing dishes for hours!"

Hermione sighed and shook her head. "Think before you speak then. Do you want to dry or wash?"

"Come again?"

"The dishes; do you want to towel them or clean them?"

Ginny looked at Hermione, to the sink and back to Hermione.

"Here," Hermione spat, thrusting a towel at Ginny. "When I hand you something, dry it off with the towel and place it over there."

Ginny pretended to smile sweetly and ripped the towel from Hermione's hands.

"Don't be mad at me _Ginevra_! This is entirely your fault."

Hermione turned the faucet on, picking up a plate that was covered in food residue and crumbs. Ginny swallowed, turning pale. "This is disgusting," she said.

"I have to do it at home," Hermione shrugged. She handed Ginny the now clean, but dripping, plate. Her hands immediately went back to the sink.

This motion continued forten whole minutes. The rush of water from the facet, spraying in all directions once it hit the stack of dirty dishes and the clink of porcelain on porcelain as the dry pile grew, was the only sounds to be heard between the girls.

"Hermione," Ginny finally spoke up. "It was funny!"

Hermione mumbled incoherently under her breath as she scrubbed a drinking glass that had the misfortune of being griped in her hands, with so much force that it almost started to crack.

Ginny carefully pried the glass away from Hermione. "Come on," Ginny said, elbowing Hermione in the arm. "Admit that it was a _tiny bit_ hilarious."

Hermione became completely wrapped up with polishing a fork until it was so shiny that it could blind someone, and ignored Ginny; who continued to poke her in the arm until she got an answer.

"Ginny!" Hermione finally screamed; splashing herself with soapy water as her sponge fell heavily into the sink. "It was not a tiny bit hilarious! It was embarrassing."

Hermione grabbed the towel out of Ginny's hand and began wiping the patches of suds and bubbles from her face and shirt. "You know that I can never face Professor Lupin again now," she added with a sigh.

"So?" Ginny laughed, gracefully hopping up on the counter, fitting herself between two wavering towers of plates, bowls and glasses.

"He thinks I'm the brightest witch of my age!" Hermione screamed, dropping the dish towel into the sea of dirty water filling the sink. "Now…now he probably thinks I'm some stupid little girl, incapable of holding decent intelligent conversations; instead spending time describing what level of hotness his best friend is on."

"Well, it is a thing worth describing," Ginny giggled, glancing towards the door that led to where Sirius was, in the dining room.

Hermione sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ginny, I told you that I thought Sirius was…nice looking. I didn't, however, tell you that you may use that to," Hermione paused, staring off into space; "actually I don't know _why_ you said that."

"You saw him sitting there. Those striking grey eyes dancing behind his velvety, silky drape of midnight black hair…" Ginny's gaze and voice drifted off.

Hermione leaned to the side and shook her head. "I don't think I've ever heard anyone use so many adjectives to describe someone's hair," Hermione said dryly, tapping her foot in vain hope that Ginny would snap back into reality.

Ginny stuck her tongue out at Hermione. "Anyways, he looked, well, hot! It needed pointing out. Someone had to proclaim this revelation!."

"Fine, Ginny. But why me?" Hermione asked desperately. "Why not say that _you_ think he's an Adonis?"

"It was funnier the other way," Ginny laughed. Hermione sighed, and started restacking the plates next to Ginny.

Ginny's broad smile disappeared as she saw the genuine look of worry and embarrassment littered across her friend's face.

"I'm sorry, ok?" Ginny asked, sliding of the counter to give Hermione more room to meticulously stack and restack the piles. "Look at it this way; I've actually done you a favor."

Hermione stopped piling, to glance over her shoulder and shoot Ginny a frustrated, confused look.

"Yeah!" Ginny continued. "You were losing our bet; I mean it was kind of obvious. But, now that Sirius knows that you think that he's hot…well, that defiantly scored you major points."

Hermione spun around and stared at Ginny. Hermione's upper eyelids fell over her eyes slowly, popping back open moments before they came into contact with the bottom. "Ginny…I'm going to go spend my time doing something more important and fascinating; my homework."

Hermione padded across the kitchen and out towards the staircase that led upstairs. Ginny laughed as soon as she heard the door snap shut again.

"Homework should never accompany the word fascinating in a sentence," Ginny said out loud to herself; "unless you're saying, _it's fascinating how much I don't want to do this homework_."

Ginny laughed quietly again, but she couldn't shake the pangs of guilt in her stomach. She should have known that Hermione's slight uptight personality would never be comfortable with Ginny announcing to the world that she thought Sirius was spiffy; more than spiffy, sexy.

Sighing, Ginny wished that she never admitted to Hermione that she liked Sirius, or that she even started this bet. It was nice to have someone to talk with about her crush over Sirius and to pretend to fight over him with; but she wished that Hermione would have more fun.

"If only Fred or George fancied men," Ginny laughed. "Now there would be competetion."

Ginny jumped as the dining room door flew open, and a laughing Tonks went toppling to the floor.

Just before the door came back to smack Tonks in the head, Ginny caught a glimpse of Sirius shaking and burying his head into Remus's shoulders.

"Ow," Tonks squealed, rubbing her head.She managed to pick herself up enough to crawl away from the dining room door. She flopped back down, in a heaping pile of giggles, on the cold kitchen tile. Sirius came swaggering over to Tonks, followed by a causal, proper looking Remus.

Extending his hand, Sirius attempted to help Tonks up. His continued laughter deflated his strength and he was only able to drag her further across the floor.

Tonks shifted, so that she was sitting with her legs spread out in front of her. Sirius let go of Tonks hand, and dabbed at the moisture creeping out from his eyes. Remus shook his head, and helped Tonks off the floor.

Ginny cleared her throat; silent confused laughter lighting up her eyes. Sirius looked up at her, straightening his back.

"Hello, Ginny," Sirius said, his voice lowering slightly. He strutted over to her, a wicked smile playing at his lips.

"What's so funny?" Ginny giggled out, looking over at Tonks who was pointing to Remus's chin, once again laughing so hard she couldn't speak. Remus tried to look annoyed, but he couldn't hide his small, crocked smile.

"Don't mind them," Sirius said. His eyes drifted over to the still half filled sink of dirty plates and murky water. "Chores, huh?"

"Yep; and muggle style on top of that," Ginny said bitterly.

"Well," Sirius said winking; "we can't have such a beautiful girl slaving over filthy dishes all day." Sirius waved his wand, enchanting the sink to clean everything itself.

Ginny smiled brightly and almost melted as her eyes blended with Sirius's. "Thank you," she sighed.

"Anytime," Sirius said, the corner of his mouth lifting up.

Ginny swallowed, and stepped closer to Sirius; not more than an inch of air stood between them. "I think you're hot too, you know," Ginny whispered, rising up on her toes.

Sirius's eyebrows shot up, and he made to step back, away from Ginny; but his movements were halted.

"GINEVRA WEASLEY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"


	8. Dusty Brain

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Thank you soooooooo much for the lovely reviews!!!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and will have a wonderful new year too!!

One note about the story: I'm guessing about Remus's eye color. I always say they're blue because David Thewlis, who plays him in the movie, has blue eyes; plus that color seems to fit him. Enjoy the story!!!! :D

&&

The kitchen door, which led into the front hallway, slammed so hard behind Hermione that she assumed it cracked the old wood that etched out the house.

Ginny stomped on Hermione's last nerve, and the safety of homework was calling her name.

Hermione still felt the pangs of embarrassment every time her mind wandered back to hearing Ginny say that she thought Sirius was hot. Of course she thought Sirius was hot, but she didn't want it broadcasted for everyone to hear.

Its not that she really cared what Sirius thought. Let him think that she drools over him, it'll probably raise his spirits; but Professor Lupin was there, sitting right next to Sirius, and hearing everything.

Hermione had so much respect for her former Defense against the Dark Arts professor. Professor Lupin had the unfortunate fate of having to become a terrible monster once a month; something that crippled him, and made him an outcast in the wizarding world.

Looking past his disease, which Hermione did, was a sweet, kind, smart man; and Hermione greatly admired his ability to rise above their world's injustices.

Hermione leaned up against the wall outside the kitchen. She knew that even if she went upstairs and started her homework, her thoughts would not be completely shaken of embarrassment.

"I have to explain everything to Professor Lupin," Hermione sighed. "I like being able to talk to him about important, intelligent issues. He's probably lost all respect for me."

Hermione started absentmindedly scraping the small specks of dirt from under the, usually spotless, fingernails on her right hand. _And, I don't want Professor Lupin to think that I fancy Sirius more than him either!_

Hermione clapped her hands over her eyes and shook her head. She felt like vomiting; she hated the fact that her mind was starting to deteriorate with every passing second.

_A war is beginning, Harry's life could be in danger; and all I can think about is how hot Sirius is, and how much I like Professor Lupin?_

Actually, it was hard not to think like that, and not just because she was a growing teenager. Who wants their mind to constantly stream worried thoughts about the end of the civilized wizarding world?

Hermione didn't want to openly admit it, but this little bet with Ginny, while not relaxing her nerves in the slightest, did make her stop thinking for a moment.

She did openly admit to herself, however, that she did like Professor Lupin. He was almost exactly the kind of man she would want to be with; the almost referring to him being a werewolf. But even that she didn't mind, it wasn't his choice after all. He was smart and cared about all living creatures, just like her. She remembered when he listened intently to her ideas about freeing house elves, and seriously discussed them with her; that's when she fell completely in love with him.

Moving her back from against the wall, Hermione once again shook her head, and decided that she needed to do her homework, and exercise the part of her brain which unfortunately has fallen prey to dust collecting.

She started to softly tip toe to the staircase, past the portrait of Mrs. Black, when she heard a small rumble of high pitched laughter that threatened to break the silence of the hall. It was coming from the kitchen.

Hermione crept back to the kitchen door, and pushed it back slightly. Through the small opening, Hermione peaked in and saw Tonks sprawled across the kitchen floor, roaring with bursts of laughter.

Opening the door more, she could see Sirius attempting to help his cousin up, but not succeeding due to his own deadly case of giggles. Hermione's face flushed with a new wave of embarrassment when she saw Professor Lupin casually walk over to the two, showing blatant signs of annoyance.

Hermione swallowed, clearing her drying throat, and prepared herself to enter the room. Opening the door a little wider, her eyes fell on Ginny.

Ginny stood by the sink, the soggy sponge clenched in her hand and dripping soapy water all over the clean floor. Hermione could see a mix of amusement and lust all over Ginny's face as she watched Sirius. Hermione felt her blood boil; someone needed to put that girl in her place.

Hermione closed the kitchen door gently, making sure not even a squeak escaped from the rusted hinges. She spun around and made her way quickly, but quietly up the stairs.

When she got far enough from Mrs. Black, Hermione galloped the rest of the way up the stairs and down another hallway.

A stream of off key humming hit her ear drums, and directed her towards a room to her left. Stepping inside, Hermione found a jovial Mrs. Weasley humming and folding clothes. Hermione needed to get her downstairs, fast.

"Mrs. Weasley?"

"Hermione," Mrs. Weasley whipped around, a pair of unfolded socks in each hand. "Is everything all right?"

Hermione exhaled heavily. "Yes, but, well…You need to come downstairs. I, um...Fred and George are trying to make me and Ginny buy some weird candy that's supposed to make your skin turn colors to relect your mood."

Mrs. Weasley furrowed her brow, and quickly led the way back to the kitchen; mumbling something the whole way about _those boys_ and _being arrested one day_.

Hermione felt her heart pumping in her chest, and a creeping feeling of satisfaction starting to take over. _It's about time Ginny gets caught in her own pervy web! _She also made a mental note to apologize to the twins, and sell them her idea.

Mrs. Weasley threw the kitchen door open, and stopped in her tracks; sock-clenched hands placed on her hips.

"GINEVRA WEASLEY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" she screamed.

Hermione peaked around the outline of Mrs. Weasley, and her eyes widened when she saw Ginny standing no more than a centimeter away from Sirius; balancing on the very tip of her toes, poised to kiss.

She couldn't help but laugh.

"I told you," Mrs. Weasley said; Sirius paled and attempted to casually step away from Ginny, but he only made it look more obvious.

"I told you," Mrs. Weasley continued; "that you were _not_ _allowed_ to use magic to wash those dishes!"

Ginny exhaled what looked like a month's worth of oxygen and Hermione's mouth dropped to the floor.

She stared at Mrs. Weasley, and raised her hand, pointing it at the relieved looking Sirius.

At the same time, Mrs. Weasley raised her own hand, and pointed it at the sink of bewitched dishes, as she marched over to them.

"Must I watch you every second of the day?" Mrs. Weasley asked, desperation coursing through her voice. "If it wasn't for Hermione coming to get me," Mrs. Weasley smiled proudly, andturned to Hermione, who was still standing dumbfounded by the kitchen door,pointing at Sirius; "you would have gotten away with it!"

Mrs. Weasley turned to the sink, and Ginny looked at Sirius, willing him to say something. Sirius, however, was to busy snaking away from Hermione's accusing point.

"Mrs. Weasley," Hermione managed to manically squeal. "Didn't you see Ginny trying to _kmph seemaymus_?"

Hermione's words were muffled by the placement of Professor Lupin's hand across her lips. Lupin bent down and whispered in Hermione's ear; "Don't make it worse. Nothing happened."

Hermione nodded her head, and looked up into Professor Lupin's dazzlingly blue eyes. She smiled crookedly, and winced as she literally bit her own tongue.

"Well…?" Mrs. Weasley asked, staring intently at her daughter.

Ginny looked over to Sirius, back to her mother, and back to Sirius. "I didn't want to hand wash dishes," Ginny said firmly, but accompanied by a sigh. "So, I decided to make them wash themselves. Sorry."

Hermione couldn't believe her ears. She looked up at Lupin who was shaking his head disappointedly at Sirius.

Sirius walked back over to Ginny, and looked at her confusedly. "Molly, I told Ginny to stop…"

"Don't make it worse," Ginny hissed at Sirius, motioning for him to stop talking.

"Told her to stop what?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Told…her…to, um, stop disobeying her mother; that she was being very bad." Sirius pursed his lips, and shook his finger at Ginny, who turned away from her mother to hide her broad smile.

Hermione, once again, looked up at Professor Lupin. He looked down to her, and rolled his eyes.

"I can't watch this anymore," Tonks said to them, as she joined them by the door. She jabbed her finger at the scene behind her.

"Sirius, thank you for trying to get Ginny to not misbehave; but I'm afraid it's a lost cause."

"Mum!"

"Don't worry about it Molly."

Mrs. Weasley patted Sirius's shoulder. "You can be really sweet sometimes, you know," she said, a goofy smile appearing on her face; Ginny bit her lip to stop herself from laughing.

"Merlin! Besides me, isn't there _one_ woman not affected by his charms?" Tonks asked, throwing her hands up to the sky, and turning away from Sirius and Mrs. Weasley.

Lupin quickly looked down at Hermione, and back to Tonks. "Apparently not," he stated.

Hermione was shaken for a moment; she caught Lupin's supposed sly glance. She tried to think of something smart to say to him, but before she could form an intelligent sentence, he had stridden across the room to a laughing Sirius.

"You'd think, being that Sirius is my cousin, that I'd have the same effect over men that he has on woman," Tonks said, also staring at Lupin's retreating back. She shrugged and slipped out of the kitchen.

Mrs. Weasley walked towards the door behind Hermione; "If Ginny ever tries to not do what I tell her to again, let me know dear," Mrs. Weasley whispered, before she stepped out the kitchen door. Hermione stood still, staring blankly at Lupin.

"Nice try!" Ginny waved her hand in front of Hermione's face. Hermione's eyes snapped to Ginny, but not quick enough. Ginny looked over her shoulder at the two men, and laughed. She faced Hermione and moved towards the door. "Going to do homework, huh?" she asked sarcastically, as she exited the kitchen.

Hermione turned bright red, and shot one more quick glance at Professor Lupin. "Homework, yes; I've got to go start my summer homework," she said to herself; "Must re-grow brains."


	9. Intelligent Ones

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: THANK YOU, THANK YOU times a million to all you lovely reviewers!!! Just so no one gets confused about this chapter, (because after I re-read it, I found it a little confusing), it takes place on the same day as the previous one but later on. Enjoy!!! Kisses to everyone! :D

&&

Remus Lupin thanked his creator everyday, since his arrival at Number 12 Grimmauld place, that he was given large hands. Large hands, with long fingers, that were perfect to cover up his equally long and large nose, whenever he was forced to step foot into the bedroom of Sirius Black.

The large Hippogriff in the corner only contributed to, possibly a third of the odor Remus's nose was flooded with. Rotting ferret corpses, dirty clothes, wet dog and the odd smell of burning plastic mixed together in the air, causing everyone but Sirius to drop unconscious at the first whiff.

Whether Sirius didn't notice the smell, smelled worse things in the past, or wished to show off his masculinity by pretending he wasn't dying slowly in this room, Remus couldn't tell; and frankly, didn't want to know.

"Sirius," Remus said, uncovering his nostrils slightly to avoid nasally sounds. "Why are we up here?"

Sirius closed his bedroom door, and moved to sit on the bed. "Too many people around," he said.

"Everyone else left the kitchen before us," Remus said, dropping his hand completely away from his nose. He wavered slightly, but refused to allow the smells to take him victim.

"But somebody could have walked back in any second," Sirius rationalized. "I didn't want any_thing_ to hear us."

Remus motioned to the Hippogriff, who nipped back defiantly. "What did you want to talk about?" he asked, joining Sirius on the bed.

"Did you see what she did?" Sirius whispered loudly.

"Who?"

"Ginny!"

"Oh."

"Yeah." Sirius crossed his legs, uncrossed them, stood, sat back down, and crossed his legs. "She tried to kiss me."

Remus wanted to laugh. That was the only reaction he thought appropriate; laughing hysterically. He knew Ginny's actions disturbed Sirius. The one time stalker of the halls of Hogwarts, who pried on random young ladies, being unnerved by one of them prying on him now, was laughable.

"She doesn't know what she is doing Sirius," Remus said, examining the dirt that had crept underneath his usually pristine fingernails. "It was your entire fault that she tried to kiss you, you know."

Sirius snapped his head towards Remus; his long black hair whipping both of them in the eyes. "How is it my fault?"

Remus squinted and rubbed his stinging eyeballs. "You called her beautiful, to begin with."

"No I didn't," Sirius huffed, flicking his hand in the air, as if he was swatting the whole idea away.

"And I quote," Remus cleared his throat. "We can't have such a _beautiful_ girl slaving over filthy dishes all day," he said, trying to copy Sirius's husky voice, but sounding more like he was suffering from indigestion.

"Oh," Sirius whispered, shrugging. "Stupid Molly," he whispered louder.

Remus stared straight ahead. He didn't want to respond to that comment. He knew what it meant.

"The fact that you are getting mad because the _mother_ of the _thirteen_ _year old _girl, that you were about to _kiss_, interrupted said escapade, is making me lose faith in all that is good. I might as well become a Death Eater."

"I didn't want to kiss her," Sirius muttered. Remus raised his eyebrows at him.

Remus feels slightly ashamed to admit that he knows what Sirius is going through. Sirius has had a tough life; but the time he has had to spend most recently, locked up in a place he hates more than anything with constant reminders of the family that abandoned him, has probably been the toughest. Remus knows that Sirius is bored, and feeling useless. He just wishes that Sirius would find a more legal hobby.

Remus also feels slightly ashamed, to feel more than slightly jealous.

"Padfoot," Remus said, hoping that using the loving nickname would soften the blow. "I know that you're having fun, but-"

"Lighten up, Moony," Sirius said, in a lighthearted voice. "I wasn't going to let her snog me. Moments, seconds before Molly walked in, I was just about to step away from her, and say something clever that would make her not kiss me, but not hate me too."

Remus smiled, and stood up. "And what clever statement would that have been?"

Sirius bit his lip and chuckled.

"Don't answer that," Remus said, laughing. He walked to the door, and opened it. He breathed in the dusty, damp air from the hallway, a relief from Sirius's room.

"Where are you going?" Sirius shouted at him.

"I have work to finish," Remus said, over his shoulder; "work, that at the moment, is more fascinating than this conversation."

Remus closed the door on Sirius's howling laughter, and made his way down the stairs.

He felt young again as he padded quietly down the staircase; like he was back at Hogwarts, and he left a giddy, scheming Sirius up in the common room to go and bury himself in the library.

Stopping for a moment in the kitchen, Remus shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. A small, shiny grey hair attached itself to Remus's ring finger. He looked at it; shifted it under the light from the ceiling, so that the many particles of it sparkled like a strand of silver. Turning his hand to the side, he let the hair fall gracefully onto the floor.

He most defiantly wasn't that young again. He made a mental note to make Sirius stop his childish game immediately; and to also not allow himself to secretly wish Hermione was saying that he was hot.

_Not that I was thinking that_, Remus thought to himself, shocked at the sudden revelation. He swallowed, and softly pushed open the door to the dining room.

Looking forward to having some quiet time to finish his paper work, Remus scanned the table to confirm that he was alone.

Sitting perfectly in the middle of the table, (his chosen seat), was Hermione. She was bent over a long spread of parchment, an encyclopedia sized book propped up next to it. Her hands were tangled in her hair, pulling the roots straight, and her face was screwed up in a disapproving scowl.

Remus laughed to himself and had the sudden urge to give her every answer to any question in the history of questions.

"Is everything all right, Hermione?"

Hermione's head shot up, and her hands dropped from her head; causing her face to become half hidden behind the veil of curls. She moved the hair over more, hiding her cheeks, which had turned slightly redder.

"I didn't see you there, Professor," Hermione said, smiling. "Actually, I'm not all right. This essay is extremely harder than I believed."

Remus pulled out the chair next to Hermione, his eyes briefly falling on his work across the table. "What subject is it for?" he asked, turning Hermione's text book slightly so that he could read the cover. "Arithmancy," Remus stated, answering his own inquiry.

Hermione nodded, and pushed her hair behind her ears. "I'm usually very good at it," she said, surprisingly without a trace of smugness. "But, this one section is just not working out."

Remus leaned over Hermione and read over the section her fingers were tapping over. "Hmm," Remus murmured. He twitched, feeling Hermione's hot breath on the base of his neck. Shifting, Remus looked behind at Hermione, whose eyes were wide with the thought of failure.

Grabbing Hermione's book, Remus happily flipped through the pages. "Let's see if we can't figure that out," he said, placing the book back down in between them. Hermione slid her chair closer to him, and once again hid her cheeks behind her hair.

Remus read a sentence, barley, before the dining room door flew open, banging into the wall.

He didn't have to look up to know who came in.

"Finishing work, huh Moony?"

Remus furrowed his forehead, but laughed when his eyes met Sirius's. "Hermione needs some help with her paper," he said, simply.

"Oh," Sirius exclaimed, he swiftly sat down next to Hermione and pulled the book closer to himself. "There's probably something wrong with this book," he shouted, moving the book around, examining it; "if it's telling you that your brilliant, correct answer is wrong!"

Hermione giggled slightly, and pulled the book away from Sirius. "My answer _is_ wrong," she said, her voice light and flirty.

Remus's forehead formed a wrinkle again.

"Now, how is that possible?" Sirius purred, making Hermione giggle a little louder; her finger impulsively pulled at a strand of her hair, wanting to twist it around, but she forcefully pulled her hand away and sat on it.

Remus's forehead furrowed even more; if that's possible.

Sirius's glittering eyes flashed to Remus and back to Hermione instantaneously. Remus knew that Sirius was trying hard to ignore his scolding stare.

"Let's see if I can't help you to figure this out," Sirius said, pulling the book back.

"Sirius," Remus spoke up, ripping the book away from him. "You never took even a half of a class of Arithmancy."

Hermione looked at Remus, and her face dropped to a look of scathing annoyance. "Sorry, Sirius," Hermione said, turning to Sirius and making her face look like she felt truly sorry that he couldn't help.

Hermione straightened the book out between herself and Remus. Remus looked over her head at Sirius, who rolled his eyes at his best mate.

"Fine," Sirius shouted, with mock hurt."I'll let you two _intelligent_ _ones_ come up with your own _intelligent_ answers."

Remus shook his head, and Hermione beamed, as her eyes sunk back into the book.

"Remus!"

Remus, Hermione, and Sirius turned their attention immediately to the dining room door. The blank wall was the only thing their eyes were greeted with. If it weren't for Hermione and Sirius also reacting to the call of his name, Remus would have believed that he was going prematurely insane.

A small hand, suddenly, rose up from the floor, and smacked onto the table top. It was followed by its sibling and then a violet covered head rose to meet them.

Sirius roared with laughter, and shook his head. Tonks stood up, and rubbed the top of her thigh. "That actually hurt," she snapped at Sirius.

"Did you need something, Tonks?" Remus asked.

"No," Tonks said, flopping into a chair across from Remus. "I was bored."

"And you shouted my name, because…?"

"I was bored," Tonks repeated, nodding her head.

"That is not a good enough answer, Tonks," Remus stated, his eyes shifting and meeting Hermione's for a moment.

"I was bored," Tonks started, slowly. "And I thought to myself, who isn't boring? Who would enlighten me with lively conversation? Who would I not mind spending copious amounts of time with? And of course, Remus Lupin was the only name that popped into my head; you know, because you're so interesting and fun." Tonks smiled, crookedly.

"Are you sure you're really thinking of Moony?" Sirius asked, sarcastically.

Remus sighed, and turned the page of Hermione's book. "Here, Hermione. This is the formula I believe you should use for that problem," he said, pointing out a line in the text.

Hermione looked at the formula and then her essay; her eyes lit her face up. "Of course," she squealed.

"Is he ignoring me?" Tonks looked at Sirius, who shrugged in response.

"You understand why you should use it?" Remus asked Hermione, his face also displaying a wide smile.

"Yes," Hermione said, locking eyes with him. "It's so simple! I can't believe I didn't realize that."

The door of the dining room once again moved and let in the ginger-haired Ginny Weasley; who sat down in a chair next to Tonks, shooting quizzical looks at Hermione, and avoiding Sirius.

"Don't worry about it, Hermione," Remus stated, placing a hand on Hermione's shoulder. "That was a very hard problem."

Hermione giggled nervously.

"He's ignoring me," Tonks said to Ginny, jabbing her thumb in the direction of Remus.

"Thank you, Professor," Hermione whispered. She shifted in her seat, and straightened out her parchment. "Do you, um, will you look over, um,"

"Of course, Hermione," Remus said, picking up Hermione's essay. His pupils began to move back and forth, following every loop and curve of Hermione's perfect hand writing.

He found, however, that the people in the background, appearing blurred due to lack of focus, distracted his mind from Hermione's essay.

Remus could just make out Tonks, leaning back in her chair with her arms folded across her chest, and fixing him with a livid, confused stare.

Over Hermione's head he noticed, Sirius. His head was pointed towards the ceiling, but eyes were peering across at Ginny; a twisted smile playing across his lips.

Hermione herself was shaking her head, and glaring across the table.

Ginny had grabbed Hermione's quill, and had used it to draw something on her hand, that she then began to slather with wet kisses. Turning her hand to show Hermione what she drew, Remus noticed that the face looked suspiciously like a wolf.

Tonks grabbed Ginny's hand to see what was on it, and officially broke what was left of Remus's concentration with her loud, boisterous laughter.

"I'm bored," Tonks whined, through her giggles. Her eyes met Remus's right before her head fell dramatically to the table.

"I have the cure, my dear cousin." Sirius rose from his seat and disappeared from Remus's view.

"Hermione," Remus said, gently to the young girl next to him who looked like she was ready to murder the younger girl across from her. Hermione tipped her head up to him, and this time didn't attempt to hide her red cheeks. Remus swallowed. "This essay is brilliant. I would defiantly give it the highest mark, if I was your teacher."

Hermione's smile shone through her eyes, and she started to say something. Her words and voice were lost underneath the now pounding stream of music that was thumping out of two worn speakers in the back of the room.

"Sirius," Remus shouted, his hands hovering over his ears. "What are you doing?"

"Tonks was bored," Sirius shouted. He started dancing around the speakers, motioning for Tonks to come join him.

A giddy, high pitched sound emitted from Tonks's mouth, and she jumped out of her seat and danced around the table towards Sirius.

She stopped at Remus and grabbed his hand. "Come on," Tonks beckoned, trying to pull him up.

Remus sat there, not giving an inch, and trying to stop himself from smiling. "I don't think so," he shouted over the music.

"Nymmm-phaaa-dooor-aaaa," Sirius called, shaking his hips with every syllable. Tonks frowned at Remus, but skipped over to her cousin.

Remus turned back around to the table, and saw Ginny flash a wicked grin at Hermione before she also fled the table.

"Ginny," Hermione attempted, but barley a note could be heard.

Ginny strutted over to Sirius, who saw her and held his hand out to dance with her. Remus started to think of ways to stop everything, when Arthur Weasley came bounding from the kitchen and grabbed Ginny, spinning her around across the floor.

"I'm so excited that I get to dance with my favorite _young_ red-headed lady," Arthur shouted towards everyone in the room. He looked down at Ginny and laughed, as he held her close to his stomach swinging her back and forth.

Ginny shot her father a dirty look, and looked over at Sirius, before she was once again spun across the room.

Remus laughed and pulled Hermione a little closer to him. "Aren't you going to dance too?" he asked, happy to be able to say this in his normal voice.

Hermione shook her head, and looked at Remus like his skin just turned blue. "I really have to finish this," she said, turning back around in her chair.

"Hermione, you're very smart; it would be perfectly ok to just relax a little bit. Have some fun."

"You still think I'm smart?" Hermione asked. She blinked about a dozen times.

Remus laughed. "Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

"Because…because of what Ginny said; this morning." She looked away from him, locking her eyes on her essay. Her hands shot up, and she rubbed her ears.

Remus looked behind him at the small dance party that had seemed to grow into including Fred and George who were tangoing together. When he turned back to Hermione, he noticed her packing everything up, also throwing annoying stares to the group behind her.

"Hermione, it's ok if you think…_that_," Remus said, not wanting to actually utter the phrase 'Sirius is hot'.

Hermione looked into his eyes, and pulled her chair back. "I don't," she said, her stare not leaving his. "Not anymore."


	10. Gaining Points

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Once again thank you to EVERYONE who reviewed/commented!!!!! I wanted to mention though, to stacey specifically, that I don't give my email out to people I don't really know because in the past I've had problems with viruses and such being sent to me because of that. I feel bad, because you are taking the time out to read my little story. But just so you know, I update this story every monday night...so check the website on wednesdays (to give the site time to post the story) and it should be there. Sorry again...hope you keep reading and if not, thanks for reading in the first place!

All right, that was long....so here's the next chapter! KISSES!!! :D

&&

"Lala lala la _la!_ Lala lala la _la!_ Hello Hermione Granger, lover of summer homework and fleer of impromptu dance parties hosted by the _luscious_ Sirius Black!"

"Ginny," Hermione said, from her desk in her and Ginny's bedroom. She nodded her head as a greeting. "Have fun?"

"Ron almost threw up when Tonks asked him to dance. He had the hiccups the entire time they were waltzing," Ginny laughed. She flopped down on the floor next to Hermione's chair.

Hermione laughed despite herself and laid her quill down neatly across the parchment she was previously writing on. "Does he fancy her?"

"No," Ginny stated. "I think it was just because she's a girl. He kept asking where you were." Ginny's smile grew ten times wider, lighting her face up.

"I feel like I'm in a muggle Soap Opera," Hermione murmured, rolling her eyes.

"But here is the _best_ part," Ginny squealed, clapping her hands in anxious excitement to hear her own words. "I danced with Sirius for _twenty whole seconds_, before my dad snagged me away from him."

Hermione shook her head, letting it fall back. Ginny sighed and fell backwards, so that she was sprawled across the floor.

"You weren't counting the seconds, were you Ginny?"

Ginny stared at the ceiling, drumming her fingers on her stomach. "No," she said, a little too cheery to be believable.

"Ginny," Hermione groaned.

Ginny sat up, giggling. "What?" she asked.

"I'm losing our bet, aren't I?"

Ginny stared, mouth hanging open. That was the last thing she thought Hermione would say. A sly smile pulled at the left corner of Ginny's mouth. "If you haven't all ready lost it," she said. "Maybe if you weren't preoccupied with _Rrrrr_emu_s_," Ginny continued, trilling the 'R' in Remus. "You could have tried to gain some points."

Hermione started twirling her quill around with her finger, ignoring the burning feeling on her cheeks. Ginny grunted as she stood up, stretching her back and cracking the tiny bones in her spine. "Where are you going?" Hermione asked, just because she wanted to end the awkward silence that Ginny created.

"Mum told me that I had a fifteen minute break before I had to come and help here clean out an old writing desk. I still have five minutes, so I think I'll go find Sirius." Ginny spun around on her heels, but stopped to glance back at Hermione. "He told me that whenever I feel bored I can come and talk to him; and, talk, was accompanied by a wink."

"He probably had something in his eye," Hermione pointed out.

Ginny giggled wickedly. "You're just mad because you've lost; Sirius fancies me…and not you!" Ginny skipped out of the door, shooting a warm, 'I'm-kidding' kind of smile at Hermione, who missed it completely.

Hermione was all ready turned back facing her desk, quill moving like lightening speed across a new piece of parchment. She hated losing; even in something as ridiculous as this.

"Rem- _hem_, Professor Lupin told me to relax and have some fun and that he still thinks I'm smart," Hermione mumbled to the blank parchment in front of her. The words _Ways to Beat Ginny_ shined in fresh ink across the top. "So, I'm going to forget about remembering to care about what he thinks, and have some fun; making Ginny's ego deflate."

Hermione returned to her list, scribbling words, crossing out words, and re-scribbling words in neat rows across the paper.

"I'm not going to make you a snack, Sirius," said the annoyed voice of Remus Lupin. Hermione's head lifted up slightly, casting her eyes, and ears, into the hallway.

"Please Moony, _please_!" Sirius walked past Hermione's door, she could just make out Sirius pouting his mouth and batting his eyelashes.

"No," Remus stated. "Make it yourself. I have work to finish."

"Can't your work include making your best mate a sundae?"

Hermione heard Remus laugh out another no, before his voice was to far from her hearing range to be comprehensible.

Crossing out the number one thing on her list, Hermione laughed quietly and wrote down a new sentence.

&&

"Ginny Weasley, if you take one more break…"

Ginny cut off her mother's voice as she slammed the kitchen door behind her. "If I have to de-cobweb one more snake statue I'm going to vomit," Ginny shouted to the empty room, imitating someone throwing-up all over the floor.

She sauntered across the kitchen floor, stopping at the basket of neatly arranged fruit that was sitting on the counter. Ginny's fingers traveled over anything edible in the basket, before she pulled a lopsided pear from the bottom; not bothering to pick up the two oranges that were cast out of the basket and onto the floor.

Ginny jumped up on the counter, and sank her teeth into the biggest section of the pear, allowing the juice to fall down the right side of her chin.

The kitchen door that led into the hallway swung open, letting a bobbing, nose pointed towards the ceiling, Hermione inside.

"Hi, Hermione," Ginny called. Hermione barley looked at her. "There's some fruit over there, if you're hungry." Ginny started peeling away some of the skin of her pear, and flicking the pieces onto the floor. "I mean Sirius did say that only _I_ can eat from his fruit basket, but…I bet he wouldn't mind," she added, laughing at her own lie.

"Mm hmm," Hermione said, half listening to Ginny's voice. Her head was hidden behind the door of the freezer in the corner, and her arms quickly became filled with cans and boxes.

Hermione carried everything over to the counter in the middle of the kitchen. As she arranged everything in order of when she was going to be using them, she waved her wand and the cabinet next to Ginny's head popped open, and a glass bowl flew out of it and into Hermione's waiting hands.

"What are you doing?" Ginny asked, confused.

Hermione said nothing, she didn't even look up. Her eyes were focused on her task. Hermione's hands moved from left to right. Scooping, pouring and squirting things onto the quickly growing tower in the bowl.

Ginny shifted on the counter. "Can you move a little?" she shouted. "I can't see what you're doing."

Hermione ignored her. Ginny continued to eat and shift.

Finally, after she had bent down to be eye level with her masterpiece, turning the bowl around to inspect it from all sides, and still hiding it from Ginny's view, Hermione turned and faced Ginny.

"Well?" Ginny asked, antsy to get an answer. Hermione merely smiled triumphantly.

She turned back around, and steadied the bowl in her hands for its journey to its devourer.

Hermione walked at a medium pace across the room, and exited the kitchen. Ginny sprang from the counter and bolted after her.

Up the stairs, and down the hall, Hermione stopped in front of the bedroom door of Sirius Black. "Can you knock for me?" Hermione asked Ginny, sweetly; she raised the bowl slightly and shrugged her shoulders.

Ginny locked suspicious eyes with Hermione, as her hand moved forward and tapped hard on the door.

"Back up," Hermione said, shooing Ginny away with her chin.

Ginny took three steps away from the door; her eyes still squinted suspiciously at Hermione.

Sirius's bedroom door swung open. "Hello, Hermione," he said, his eyes widening as they traveled down to her hands.

"Hello, Sirius! I thought you might like a snack." Hermione smiled and presented Sirius the loaded sundae.

Sirius's face stretched with his smile. "How did you know I wanted a sundae?" he asked his voice cracking slightly as he swallowed the built up pool of salvia in his throat.

Hermione shrugged, mentally wishing she could look over at Ginny without letting Sirius see her. "I had no idea you wanted one! That's funny isn't it?" She placed the sundae into Sirius's hands and dropped hers behind her back.

Sirius leaned over towards the dresser near his door, and the clink of the bowl being put down was heard. "Thank you, Hermione. It's just…you're just too nice, really." Sirius pulled Hermione towards him, and wrapped his arms around her. He rocked her back and forth twice and then let go.

Hermione ignored the twist in her stomach.

Ginny ignored the whole thing.

"Well, I'll talk to you later, Sirius," Hermione said, hoping her smile hid her blushing face. "Enjoy the sundae!"

Sirius nodded enthusiastically and re-shut his door.

Turning to face Ginny, Hermione bit her bottom lip and sighed dreamily.

Ginny took one huge step backwards. Her hand rose up, and a twitchy pointer finger shot out. Ginny opened her mouth, but only air escaped.

"What was that?" Hermione asked, cupping her hand around her ear.

"WAR!"

Ginny jumped around and shot down the hallway. She kept running a blur of red hair down the stairs and into the room her mother designated as 'the laundry room'.

Ginny burst inside, her hands clutching her aching ribs. Looking up, she saw Fred and George sitting on mounds of, what she hoped was dirty, clothes, and huddled over a piece of paper.

"What are you two doing?" Ginny huffed at them.

Fred and George blinked and shared a blank look. "Um, well this is the _laundry_ room, Gin," George stated.

"So, naturally we're having a meeting here," Fred added.

"Mum, actually, she's making us wash the clothes," George said, sliding off his pile.

"Oh?" Ginny strutted over to a couple of random piles on the large table in the middle. Pushing aside the small pile of patched jumpers, she spotted the tip of a familiar pair of black pants.

"Yeah," Fred said. "We're being punished because Hermione told her that we were trying to force you and her to buy some sort of mood, skin changing candy. Do you know anything about that?"

"No; is that Sirius's pile?" Ginny asked ignoring Fred.

"Um, leather pants? Yes," George laughed.

"His clean pile?"

"Yes…why?" Fred eyed his sister suspiciously.

"Perfect," Ginny squealed. She pulled the pile towards her and began madly folding anything she could get her hands on. The folded articles of clothing she dropped neatly into an empty basket.

"What are you doing?" Fred asked.

Ginny ignored him, as she began trying to match up pairs of socks. Scooping up all the sock balls at once she dumped them into the basket. "Is that all of his pile?" she asked, scanning between the remaining piles on the table.

She looked up for an answer. Fred and George merely stared confused looking at her. Ginny sighed and grabbed the basket; sprinting out of the room and back up the stairs.

Once again, she didn't stop until she got to Sirius's room. The door was open so she stepped in. "Sirius?"

"It's nothing, Sirius. I'm thinking of making one for everyone; but I thought I'd start with you, of course."

"Well, this is beautiful, Hermione. Thank you…again. Hi, Ginny."

Ginny walked, laundry basket in hand, over to Sirius and Hermione, who were standing by a small table near Sirius's bed. "What do you have there?" he said, peering into Ginny's basket.

"Oh," Ginny said, shaking her eyes away from the clay statue of Sirius and Buckbeak that Hermione was putting down on the table. "I, um, I did your laundry for you. Not a lot of detergent; just how you like it!"

"Wow, Ginny! Thanks," Sirius said, smiling wide and taking the basket from Ginny. "Did you see the statue that Hermione made me? It's a perfect likeness, isn't it?" Sirius walked over to his bed, dumping the clothes onto his mattress.

Ginny stepped closer to Hermione. "Where did you get _clay_ from?" she hissed.

Hermione shrugged, and flashed another triumphant smile.

"It's on!"

&&

_An hour later_

"I wrote you a poem, Sirius," Ginny said, stopping him before he walked out of the dining room. "_Uh-hem_, S is for stud-ly…"

"Ginny!" Mr. Weasley roared from his seat.

&&

_Twenty-seven minutes after that_

"Well, Sirius, maybe if you're hair wasn't so long…" Hermione desperately tried to drag a large brush down the length of Sirius's hair, as he sat laughing and squirming in the chair in front of her. "You wouldn't have so many tangles in it."

&&

_Thirty-one minutes and seven seconds after that_

"I _wanted_ to clean your room, Sirius!"

"What happened to your arm, though, Ginny?"

"Oh, that! That's always been there," Ginny said, looking from the gash on her arm, which was covered by red stained tissues, to the sleeping Hippogriff in the corner.

&&

_Eighteen minutes after that_

"I love motorcycles too. Really! They're....well, they're…dangerous; in a good way, though!"

&&

_Three minutes after that_

"Time for dinner, Sirius. I've saved you a place next to me. So that you can tell me more stories about all the _brilliant_ pranks you used to pull! I'm really interested to know more about them."

&&

_One minute after that_

"I saved you a seat, Sirius; over here!"

&&

_Nine seconds after that_

"He's sitting next to me, Hermione."

"No, _I'm_ sitting next to you, Ginny," Mr. Weasley said, smiling and putting a protective arm around his daughter.

Hermione mocked frowned at Ginny and turned in her seat expecting to see Sirius sitting there. Instead, Ron sat trying to smile naturally at her.

Down and across the table, Sirius was pulled into an empty seat by Remus, who then politely asked Tonks to "sit over there."

"Hermione?" Ron asked, dropping his fake smile and scowling at her.

"Ronald?"

"Why him?" he hissed, jabbing his thumb towards Sirius.

Ginny laughed, and Hermione longed to scream.


	11. Party Room

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: A **big** plate of cookies to the lovely reviewers and readers!! Muah!

And I know I said, "I update every monday night!", but I couldn't get the website to load. A whole night without any Harry Potter fan fiction! 'cries some more' Well, enjoy this chapter!!! :D

&&

"Sit over there, please Tonks."

"Remus," Tonks and Sirius whined in unison.

Remus pulled Sirius into the empty chair next to Tonks. Sirius straightened up in his chair and threw Tonks a 'get-up-now' look, jerking his head back for effect.

"I don't want to get up," Tonks said, ignoring her cousin's attempt at authority. Remus pulled Tonks' chair, with Tonks still in it, out from the table. "Fine! Have your freaky little boys-club meeting! Wankers!"

Tonks spun out of her chair, smacked her head into Remus's chest, then smacked a hysterically laughing Sirius across the head, and then stormed over to the other side of the table.

Remus sat down in the empty chair, and pulled himself quietly and stiffly up to the table.

Sirius brushed his hair off of his shoulder in one overly flourish move. "One, two, thr…"

"Sirius, what do you think your doing?"

"You could've at least waited till I finished the word three."

"Hermione _brushed_ your hair!" Remus's whispered hiss drew an odd stare from the rest of the table, but he tried his best to ignore it.

"She did a pretty good job; a little rough, but I can take it." Sirius winked, for the simple want of seeing the little throbbing vain over Remus's ear to start beating double time.

Remus pressed on the spot in between his eyes, dragging his finger down the length of his nose. "You are thirty-three _years_ old. You should not be getting your hair brushed and your room cleaned for you anymore. Does none of this seem creepy to you?"

Reaching for the potatoes and slopping a huge spoonful onto this plate, Sirius considered stuffing his belly with so much starch and fat thathe wouldexplode in a dramatic explosion therefore giving him a way to avoid having to once again answer any of Remus's questions. He thought them all to be like theoretical needles popping his balloon of fun; and they were annoying him.

"Remus, Moony, my best mate. This would be creepy if I was being serious."

"Are you being serious?"

"Who else am I supposed to be?"

Remus tried to force his smile into an annoyed grimace. "That was _never_ funny, by the way."

Sirius huffed and turned his attention back to his plate. "I need bread. Where's the bread?"

"It's down at the end," Remus sighed. "And don't think that changing the subject is going to make me actually change the subject."

Sitting up straight, Sirius peered past Remus and saw the heart sinking image of an almost empty bread basket in front of Arthur Weasley.

"Arthur," Sirius called. "Can you pass the bread, please?"

"You have a wand!"

"Um, I said please….?"

The bread basket came soaring down the table, accompanied by Mrs. Weasley's scolding "Arthur". Remus caught it just before the basket would have smashed Sirius's eye balls further into their sockets. He looked inside and smiled. "One left," he whispered.

Sirius whimpered.

"Here," Remus laughed, thrusting the basket into Sirius's waiting hands.

"What do you think _his_ problem is?" Sirius asked, flashing his eyes towards Arthur, so that Remus wouldn't miss who he was talking about.

"I should have let that basket hit you," he said, shaking his head. Remus refused, just plain refused, to believe that Sirius was really being that naïve. "It was the sundae I refused to make you, wasn't it?"

"…what?" Sirius asked, after swallowing his mouth full of roll.

"That sundae started this whole thing. Hermione probably heard me refuse to make it for you, with good reason. Then she took the opportunity to one up Ginny. Ginny became enraged, I'm sure, and so began today's 'war of favors'. I should have just made it myself."

Sirius put his arm around Remus, who tried to confusedly pull away. "Don't be upset, Moony! Hermione's sundae was rubbish compared to yours. She didn't even draw Padfoot on the top with the syrup."

"I know you like that," Remus said, before he closed his eyes and threw Sirius off of him. "What am I saying!? That's not the point."

"What is the point, then?"

"Well, the sub point is that Sirius Black should not get a sundae made for him simply because he's too lazy to make it for himself." Sirius dropped his mouth in mock offence. "The real point is that…"

"He's just having fun, Remus!"

Remus and Sirius turned their attention to the red faced Tonks sitting in front of them. "It's not like he can go on actual dates with them."

"Yes I can!"

"Where?" Tonks asked, sarcastically. "The basement or the kitchen?"

Sirius sat back, folding his arms across his chest. He shook his head, letting his long hair fall like a drape over his face. "I don't even want to look at you," he said, from behind his mask.

Continuing to stare at Tonks, Remus tried to hide his look of disappointment. "Do you really approve of Sirius' behavior?"

Tonks tilted her head to the side, invisible gears working hard in her brain as she thought of what exactly her answer to that question should be. She longed for something clever to spill out of her mouth. "What's wrong with being interested in a younger woman, Remus?" She went with the obvious, but refused to let her embarrassment show.

Bringing his glass up to his mouth, Sirius cleared his throat. "Don't answer that Moony," he whispered, with glass between his lips.

Remus blinked, propped his elbows on the table, remembered his manners, removed his elbows, and blinked again. "They're not just young woman; they're students. There is indeed something very wrong with the whole situation."

A napkin flew from Tonks' hand down on her plate, and she was up in one, almost, elegant movement. "There is nothing wrong with it, Remus," Tonks shouted for the whole room to hear, before apparating the hell out of there.

"What's her problem?"

"I don't know. What kind of flowers should I get for Ginny and Hermione?"

Remus was staring ahead at the spot that Tonks just occupied, only half listening to other voices. "What?" he asked, before it dawned. "_WHAT!?_ Sirius how are you going to obtain flowers?"

"Buy them." Remus brought his face directly up to Sirius'. "I mean, steal them from next door." Remus squinted his eyes and raised his left eyebrow. "I mean make Mundungus steal them from next door," Sirius mumbled, backing up from Remus's squinty face.

Remus shook his head and forked a carrot. "I probably should apologize to Tonks…for upsetting her?"

Shrugging, Sirius motioned for Mundungus to come over to him.

Remus resigned. He looked down at the end of the table. His eyes rested on Hermione. She was sitting in between two, now, empty chairs, swirling a mix of potatoes and half eaten meat around her dish; her head rested on her elbow, and a look of disappointment and frustration pasted on her face.

"_I_ would give Hermione gardenias," Remus said, dragging his gaze from her. "But you should give her a Begonia; they mean beware."

"Funny."

&&

The creaking of long silent mattress springs was the only sound Sirius ever wanted to hear again. He pulled his shirt off, and sank into his bed. Eyes all ready half closed, and longing for the sweet relief of sleep.

First he had to sit through the scolding ramblings of Remus, and then he had to sit through the smug ramblings of Severus Snape at the impromptu meeting that was called directly after dinner.

And the only thing he learned is that Snape has the largest and ugliest pimple-mole-skin clump on the side of his neck; the sight causing Sirius to almost regurgitate his dinner.

Sirius relaxed his body and buried his face into the bottom of his pillow.

His mind started to drift off, when another sound besides Buckbeak's heavy breathing hit his ears.

_"Ginny! Why are you making me do this?"_

_"Shh! You wanted to come; I didn't make you do anything."_

_"Well, someone had to _-CREAK- _oh no!"_

Sirius shifted so that his ears weren't covered by his pillow. Suddenly curiosity had taken the place of exhaustion. He could hear the soft padding once again start up. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh or yell at them. But then he remembered that he's Sirius Black, not Remus Lupin.

-CREAK-

"_Watch where you step, with those giant feet."_

"Excuse me," Hermione huffed, forgetting to whisper. Sirius pretended to grunt in his sleep, causing both girls to squeak and, by the sound, leap towards the dark corner.

_"Buckbeak isn't over here, is he?"_

_"Yes, he is. That settles it then; let's turn back."_

As if to say 'I'm waaayyy over here', Buckbeak snapped his claws. Sirius tried not to laugh.

"_Nice try."_

The two pairs of footsteps grew louder, as they stalked closer and closer to Sirius, who was biting his lower lip, making his eyes stay shut, and wishing that he knew what he sounded like when he was asleep.

_"Explain to me why we're_ –CREAK- _in here."_

_"I just want to see…"_ Ginny's voice trailed off.

_"See what?"_ Hermione hissed and Sirius thought.

Then a light shined in Sirius's mind. A young, obviously hormonal, girl is sneaking into his bedroom late at night to see something; what could that be, besides…._Yikes_.

_"Ginny!"_

_"What?" _Ginny asked in a giggly whisper.

_"You can't…peak at him! It's, it's just not right, at all!"_

Panicking, Sirius could only think of pretending to have some kind of horror filled night terror that would wake him up screaming, and sending the girls in a run from his room. He was just about to start moaning about Dementors, when someone knocked loudly on his door.

"Wha?" Sirius shouted, pretending to spring out of a deep sleep.

_"Move!"_

"Sirius," said the nervous voice of Ron. "Sirius, are you sleeping?"

"Not anymore, Ron," Sirius said, making his voice sound rather annoyed, when in reality he was completely relieved. "Come in."

Ron gingerly walked across the room and sat on Sirius' bed, inches away from the crouched and huddled bodies of his sister and best friend.

"Is something wrong?" Sirius asked, sitting up.

"I just…I just wanted to tell you….that….um…I wanted to tell you that _I-"_

"Sirius?"

Ron stopped talking immediately and snapped off of Sirius' bed. Sirius could hear him swallowing loudly and rubbing his palms together. Peering through the relative darkness, Sirius just made out the form of his cousin moving closer to his bed.

"Sirius," Tonks said, and then her eyes fell on the nervous looking Ron. She cocked an eyebrow at Sirius, and made a motion like she was going to walk away slowly.

"Welcome to the party," Sirius said, forgetting the no one but he knew about the peeping toms in the corner. "I mean, sit; what's troubling you?"

Tonks and Ron shared a long look. "Well, I just, I just wanted to tell you, um…"

"Someone better tell me something now, before I ignore the lot of you and go back to sleep."

Tonks and Ron looked at each other again. Tonks smiled and Ron nodded and Sirius had no idea what was going on.

"I just wanted to _know_, actually, if Remus has ever had any sort of non platonic feelings towards people like me; you know, woman?" Tonks asked.

Sirius laughed; curled into his lap and vibrating. "Of course he does, Tonks! In fact I think he might have a thing for Herm…you." Sirius quickly looked at Ron, praying that he didn't hear the almost slip. Luckily, Ron was beaming at Tonks and didn't seem to notice.

"Hmm," was all Tonks said. Sirius was thankful that Tonks spared him from the insane giddy ramblings that he assumed was going on in her head at the moment.

_"He can't fancy her!"_

"What was that?" Tonks and Ron said together.

There was a high pitched squeak and Sirius' heart started beating triple time. "Buckbeak," Sirius stated, before another knock came from his door.

"Sirius, can I come in?"

Sirius rolled his eyes and fell back against his pillows. "Yes," he shouted.

In one second, Tonks slid herself under Sirius' bed, coughing slightly with the inhale of fresh dust. Ron took on a fake cough to mask hers.

"Ron, is everything all right?" Remus asked, with a curious look at Ron, who nodded in between his coughing theatrics.

"Sit, Remus. Talk; but you better actually say something."

Remus sat down slowly. The mattress creaked under the new weight, also emitting a strange high pitched gasping sound. "Sirius, I tried to talk to Tonks, and she ignored me. I think she might…fancy me, and I need you to help me, politely, tell her that I'm not-"

"Ready for a surprise birthday party! Ron, lights! Tonks you were supposed to pop out from under the bed."

"It's not my birthday," Remus said, confused and suddenly startled by Tonks, who rose from under the bed sending Sirius a murderous look.

"Of course it isn't," Sirius exclaimed, refusing to look at Tonks. "Well, then I bid you all a good night!" Sirius curled under his blanked and clasped his eyes shut.

Ron laughed because he didn't know what else to do, and left; followed by a stomping, embarrassed Tonks. Remus stared at the curled up, pretending to be asleep Sirius for a while, before he to left the room.

_"Come on, Hermione,"_ Ginny whispered, with disappointment. _"He's wearing pants."_


	12. Questioning

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Much thanks to Le Grimoire, rikku099, thehpgang, Siriusly Sirius Lily Black, CharmedLeoLvr, YamiClara, BabyRuth,and Solecito (shirtless Sirius is mmm, indeed and I don't think he's really dead either!!) for commenting!!!! Thanks, also, to anyone who just read. Anyways, I know, I know, it was a bit far-fetched to make Ginny want to see _that_, but it's all explained. I was being pervy when I wrote that chapter!!! Lol! Enjoy! :D

&&

Hermione's face was frozen in shock. From Sirius's bedroom all the way back to her own, her eyes appeared as wide as saucer plates, and her mouth formed a permanent, slightly crooked, circle.

Ginny led Hermione by the shaking hand, holding her face in perfect seriousness, though bubbles of laughter threatened her performance.

The girls' bedroom door fell close as silently as Ginny could manage it. She leaned her back up against the door, starring with twinkling brown eyes at Hermione, who had sat down on her bed, tossed her head back, crossed her legs, and folded her hands over her knee. She glared at Ginny with enough intensity to rival Mrs. Weasley.

"What?" Ginny asked, beckoning Hermione to speak.

Hermione shook her head solemnly. "Who are you?" she asked, as Ginny burst into hysterics. "I don't even know who you are."

"I was joking," Ginny shouted indignantly, flopping down on her bed and propping her head up.

"No you weren't."

"Yes, I was!" Ginny kicked her leg up in the air, allowing it to slam back down on the creaky mattress. "I just said that to make you scream with mortification; or laugh, but I wasn't hoping."

"I don't believe you," Hermione retorted. "You wanted to see his-"

"Ew! Hermione; ew!" Ginny covered her eyes with her hands and blushed. "I honestly had no intentions or the desire to _see_ anything."

Hermione tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips so tightly together, that it was a marvel that words found their way out of them. "Then why did you want to sneak into his room?"

"I was _bored_," Ginny whined. "What's my reason for doing anything since we got here? And…and…I don't want to tell you," she trailed off, dramatically turning her back to Hermione.

Standing up, Hermione resisted the immense urge to rip her hair out. She took a deep breath. "You can tell me, Ginny," she insisted in a strained, but trusting voice.

"No; it's too embarrassing!"

Hermione sighed, and pushed back the comfortable on her bed. She lay down, and snuggled herself against the cold wall. She didn't care anymore. She was tired, her nerves were shot.

The unmistakable sound of rusted springs bending under unfamiliar weight ended the short silent period. "Aren't you going to bug me?" Ginny asked. "Make me tell you? Threaten my life if I don't enlighten you?" The bedroom lights flickered off suddenly, and Ginny blinked into the fresh darkness. "I wanted to see what he looks like when he's sleeping."

"Good night, Ginny."

"I wanted to know if his hair spreads wildly over his pillows, falling slightly into his face. I wanted to know if he snores, or just breathes heavy; if his eyes flutter softly as he dreams, or if, even in sleep, do his lips curl up into that sly smile he always has. I just…I was just curious."

"Ginny?" Hermione asked, quietly.

Ginny sat up slightly, expectantly hoping that Hermione was going to help her paint the beautiful picture of Sirius sleeping. She waited for Hermione to start the elaboration.

"You forgot," –Hermione cleared her throat- "_whether or not he wears pants to bed."_ Hermione's impersonation of Ginny's voice became corrupted by waves of laughter.

Ginny made a sound like "gurargle" and threw her spare pillow at the dark lump on the opposite bed. She flipped back over to face the wall. It was disheartening to her, it almost seemed disloyal to her that Hermione didn't believe that she was joking.

Her intentions from the beginning, while not wholly innocent, were never perverted.

The whole idea was a spawn from an overly bored mind. Earlier that night, after dinner, Ginny found herself locked in her room, with a depressive silent lump also known as Hermione "I had a fight with Ron, and I don't want to talk about it" Granger.

Mrs. Weasley sent each child to their respective rooms during an ultra important Order meeting. She was patrolling just incase; so escaping was the last possible thing Ginny could do. All she did for an entire hour was stare and count the raggedy cracks in the ceiling. She developed a knot of throbbing pain behind her right eye; it was still twitching.

Hermione refused to speak. Ron said something to her at dinner that made her not want to talk about boys, especially not men.

After two and a half hours of imprisonment, Ginny longed for fun, she longed for adventure. She longed to feel something other than mind killing boredom; she wanted to feel those nervous tingles she got whenever she was being sneaky.

Sneaky; sneak…into Sirius's room.

She decided after that, that two things will be accomplished by her adventure into Sirius's room. One, boredom would be replaced with the giddiness of spying on Sirius, and two, Hermione will be pulled along and possibly blamed for the whole thing, if it had to come to that.

It wasn't until they were in his room that Ginny decided to make Hermione think they were in there for not so innocent reasons. When Hermione characteristically shouted in defense of her giant feet, and Ginny jumped into a corner brushing against a jumper she swore at the time felt like a big, hulking, vicious hippogriff, she saw in a pile on the floor the trousers that Sirius wore that day.

She made the important decision that the best thing to do now was to scare Hermione's hair white. Luckily, for both of them, their adventure was bombarded and squashed.

Ginny's and Hermione's present adventure into sleepy-land was squashed by a muffled banging coming from the other side of their door.

Swiftly getting up, Hermione gargled out something that sounded like "hold on" and pulled the door open.

Mr. Weasley stood there looking timid and nauseas. "Morning Hermione, is Ginny awake?"

"I am now, Dad," Ginny called from under her covers.

"Oh good," Mr. Weasley mumbled. "Hermione, would it be all right if I had a private word with my daughter."

"Of course," Hermione chirped. She quickly grabbed fresh clothes, threw Ginny a nervous glance and fled the room.

Ginny sat up and leaned her back against the wall. She rubbed and blinked the blurry remains of sleep from her eyes. "Is everything ok, Dad?"

Mr. Weasley sat primly on the edge of Ginny's bed. He straightened his tie, smoothing it over the slight hump of his stomach.

Ginny shifted so that she was laying flat on her back, with her heels propped up against the wall. The crown of her head was dangerously close to toppling off the edge of her bed. She cleared her throat, making a show of appearing extremely impatient.

"Ginny," Mr. Weasley said, sounding like a doctor who had the worst possible news to deliver. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine." _I mean annoyed, hungry, and about ready to pop if I don't go pee in the next seven minutes._

"Good, good," Mr. Weasley sighed. "Um, good; are, are you having fun here?"

"I suppose," Ginny shrugged, crossing her left leg over her right.

"Good, good," Mr. Weasley sighed, again. Ginny knew the easy questions were over. She closed her eyes.

"Ginny, how is, uh, is Sirius treating you, um, well?"

Good thing Ginny had closed her eyes because they rolled up into the back of her head, and she would have hated for her father to panic and think she fainted. "Sirius is being _very_ nice to me," Ginny said, mentally giggling as her father's face turned slightly grayish-purple in color.

"Has he, do you, how do you feel about him?" A bead of sweat traveled from Mr. Weasley's temple down towards the edge of his mouth.

Ginny bit her lip. "He's" –_gorgeous, handsome, sweet, cute; pick an adjective_- "funny."

"Funny?"

Smiling so wide that her eye sockets became two small slits, Ginny nodded enthusiastically.

"Is that all? Because you can tell me anything, Ginny."

"There's really nothing else to tell, Dad." Ginny yawned.

"Did Sirius make you clean his room?"

"No, I did it because I wanted to do something nice for him; since he's letting us stay in his house."

"That was nice of you," –a familiar voice in the form of a "ahem" was heard- "I mean, Ginny, you shouldn't be hanging around Sirius Black."

Ginny squinted her eyes at the wall by her door, and for a moment pondered asking Mad-Eye Moody how she could get her hands on one of those crazy eyes. "I like him," she said defiantly.

"Aha!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed, jumping up from the bed, causing Ginny to almost be bounced right onto the floor. "You mean that you _fancy_ him."

There was a squeaky mumble from the hallway.

"Almost Dad; you almost got it," Ginny said, moving into a kneeling position on her bed, and hiding her mischievous smile behind a veil of hair. "It's much more complicated than that."

Mr. Weasley seemed to deflate, and hid his shaky hands behind his back. "Care to elaborate?"

"Well, you see, Sirius has confided to me that he needs a young, lively girl to marry him and bear him a son that will carry on the Black Family legacy. I told him that there would be nothing more I would rather do in this entire world, than have his child."

Mr. Weasley's mouth dropped and snapped shut just as quickly. "Sirius hates his family," he retorted.

"Yes, and that is why we'll, of course, raise our son to accept all people; from muggle borns to werewolves."

"Ginny Weasley….you're lying," Mr. Weasley shouted.

Ginny stealthily balled her blanket up, while her father glanced nervously towards her bedroom door. A puffy hand was crawling along the door frame.

"Afraid it's all true, Father," Ginny grunted, getting off her bed. She stuck her now large and protruding stomach out, and waddled across the room.

A scream and a large thump shook the house. The scrunched up blanket slipped from out of Ginny's shirt, as she buckled over with laughter.

"Mum?" Ron's voice came from the hallway. "What happened to Mum?" he asked, peeking into Ginny's room.

"Your sister tried to kill her," Mr. Weasley murmured. "Come on, Molly. Ginny was just kidding."

"Who is she?" Mrs. Weasley stammered, as she was helped off the floor. "I don't even know who she is!"

"What did you do?" Ron asked, walking into Ginny's bedroom and closing their shrieking mother out in the hall. He flopped recklessly onto Hermione's bed.

"Nothing," Ginny brushed him off. "Dad was questioning me about-"

"Sirius?"

Ginny nodded as she attempted to pick her blanket up off the floor with her toes.

"I don't know why their questioning you; I mean, it's completely obvious what's going on."

"What's going on?" Ginny asked casually. She lifted the tip of the blanket up an inch from the floor, before it slipped out of her toes and fell.

"_Hermione_ and Sirius….are together."

The tip of the blanket was almost in her hands, she was almost able to add 'lifts things with only the use of her toes' to her list of talents, but instead Ronald had to utter such mind-boggling, infuriating words.

"What!?" Ginny shrilled.

Ron furrowed his eyebrows. "Ginny, you don't have to pretend you don't know with me. I've figured it all out."

The room began to spin; or at least, to Ginny, it felt like it was. "How, exactly, did you figure this out?"

"Well," Ron started, clearing his throat. "Hermione refused to answer any of my questions, at dinner, about…me….and Sirius. She kept ignoring me, and blushing; and her eyes kept wandering over to _him_ and _he_ kept _smiling_ at her. It's an obvious conclusion…they're a secret couple." Ron shuttered and took a deep breath, his clenched fists straightening out for only a moment.

"Her life is over," Ginny whispered murderously. "How could she do this?"

"Oh, Ginny," Ron said, standing up and draping his arm over the vibrating shoulders of his sister who was too close to having steam shoot from her ears. "Don't be mad at Hermione because of me. I'm fine with it. Fine! Just fine. Great, in fact! Perfect! Wonderful! Doesn't bother me at all. Nope, not me! I feel fine about it! Perfect, just perfect. Great, in fact!"

"You're repeating yourself," Ginny screamed. "Get out! I need to think."

"I'm bored, though. Can't I stay?"

"OUT!"

Ron tripped towards the door, shooting a worried glance back at Ginny, before he was gone.

Ginny didn't know why she believed Ron. She didn't even care if he or anyone else became convinced that she has gone clinically insane. For the first time since her arrival at number 12 Grimmauld Place, Ginny had something real to do besides chores, listening in on Order meetings, or flirting with Sirius: "Plotting the demise of Hermione Granger!"


	13. Bathroom Incidents

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Thank you, thank you and thank you, again, to my weekly reviewers! Lottsa love and I'm glad to make you all laugh. I'm a little miffed at this website at the moment because I desperatly wanted to update on January 31st, because its my birthday (happy 22nd birthday to me!), but the website kept telling me "come back later there's too much traffic" Oh well! lol! I also wanted to tell anyone who reads this and "Love Bites" that the last chapter for that will be posted soon, but I'm not sure when; I'm still working on it.

A couple notes about the story: this chapter is a little smaller than usual, but I liked where it stopped so I left it. And also, I can't remember what color eyes Ron has so I guessed brown like Ginny. Anyways, enjoy :D

&&

"Hermione, would it be all right if I had a private word with my daughter."

Hermione knew instantly that this was one conversation she wanted nothing to do with.

Practically leaping to her dresser, Hermione grabbed the first shirt and pair of trousers her fingers hit. She glanced over her shoulder at Ginny as she walked back towards the door, sending her a furrowed look that screamed "your in deep", before she slid out of the room and into the hallway.

There was a hint of jovial skipping in Hermione's strut towards the bathroom. It was hard not to deny her happiness. Maybe, finally, Ginny will have some sense talked into her; and she'll forget all about her highly disturbing fantasies.

Everything that's happened made Hermione feel more than a little dirty. First she sank to Ginny's level, making those ridiculous little presents; _and saying that I _like_ motorcycles? Who was I trying to kid?_

Worst she was forced to almost have to see….she didn't even want to think about it.

What she needed now was a long shower; a nice hot, steamy shower to wash away the embarrassing thoughts swimming around in her head.

Hermione walked to the bathroom deep in thought. If asked later, she probably would not be able to recall who she passed on the way to the bathroom, or if she even heard the faint sound of water rushing out of a working shower head.

But of course all thoughts were completely wiped away when she ripped back the shower curtain. Actually, she almost went blind.

"S, s, s…sorry," Hermione squeaked. She threw the curtain back against the wall and spun around to the door.

Instead of hulking, worn wood, Hermione was faced with a robe clad Remus Lupin. "Uh…?" Hermione gaped, her thumb slowly rising to point to the shower behind her.

Remus's smile spread across his face, and he lowered his head slightly to look Hermione right in the eyes. "No one is in there, Hermione," Remus said, without a hint of laughter, though his eyes gave him away.

Hermione grabbed the curtain, without breaking her stare with Remus, and re-opened the shower.

Droplets of water, no longer contained by the plastic wall, bounced of the shower floor and sprinkled her face. Besides moldy tiles, and a lonely rubber ducky, the shower was otherwise void of anything that can be labeled 'human'.

"Oh," Hermione said.

"I was just about to take a shower," Remus spoke up, reaching past Hermione, and turning the faucets off. "Thankfully, for you, I forgot my soap by the sink…that's when you barged in."

"I am so sorry, Professor," Hermione squealed. "I can't even imagine what made me forget to knock."

Remus laughed and tightened the knot holding his robe closed. "It's all right, Hermione. No harm done."

Hermione turned tomato red, and stared at her feet. "I just hope you don't think that I was trying to se…"

"Of course I don't," Remus soothed, shaking his head. "In fact, why don't you use the shower first."

Hermione shook her head, and squeezed past Remus, making sure her hands didn't brush against anything they shouldn't be brushing against. "You were here first, Professor," she said.

"Ok, but Hermione?" Remus reached past her and opened the door for her. "I'm not your professor anymore. It's Remus; and if that's uncomfortable, Lupin is just fine."

Hermione blushed and smiled. "Thank you, Lupin," she said quietly, not able to find the courage to actually call him by his first name. Remus smiled as he closed, and locked the bathroom door.

Burying her head in her hands, Hermione felt the heat from her cheeks burning her palms. The whole bathroom incident left her feeling a slew of things. The most prominent feeling being the one that screamed, _Merlin, Professor…Remus is so cute, and charming!_

She shook her head, trying to loosen those thoughts completely out of her mind.

"Do you have a head ache, Hermione?"

Hermione looked up, her hands still hovering around her previously clasped eyes, to see Tonks with an amused, quizzical look on her face. "I'm fine," she responded.

Tonks smiled, and moved forward, clutching the bathroom door handle.

"Um," Hermione gasped, quickly pushing the door shut.

"Oh, is someone in there?" Tonks asked, pushing her ear against the door.

"Yes, Remus is," Hermione stated. She felt something surge through her body as she called Remus by his first name in front of Tonks. Unfortunately, Tonks was too busy smiling mischievously to care.

"Oh," Tonks sang, pushing Hermione away from the door, and opening it wide enough for her wiry frame to slip through.

Hermione eye's widened, and she consciously noted to check into why every other female was ten times less appalled by everything than she was.

Faintly, the sound of a shower curtain being pulled back, followed by a manly screech, a fumbled and giggle filled sorry, and then a bellowing "out" were all heard in the hallway.

Tonks streaked out of the bathroom, not looking where she was going, and caught her foot on a wrinkle in the rug. She crashed to the floor, clearly twisting something.

Hermione stared at her for a few moments before she helped her off the floor. Tonks limped away from Hermione, who still stared at her in horror. "It was worth it," Tonks smirked, limping to and down the staircase.

Behind Hermione, the bathroom door opened and closed. The air picked up the scent of green tea and fresh powder, pushing past Hermione's nose and making her smile.

Hermione looked behind her. Remus stood there looking more than a little frustrated. "I tried," Hermione shrugged.

"I believe you," Remus said.

"It's this house, I think," Hermione remarked. "The longer you're here, the less intelligent you act."

Remus laughed. "Hermione," he started out, his voice wavering slightly. "Perhaps after lunch, you and I can sit down and-"

"Shower time! Who's with me?"

"Talk about intelligent things," Remus finished in a whisper. He and Hermione stared impatiently at Sirius, who was wrapped in a towel that was almost too small for him. His long hair was tied up and wrapped in a shower cap that looked more like a transparent leech attempting to slowly suck his brain out. Hermione could tell, by the look on Remus's face, that he too thought no one would even notice if that happened.

Remus rolled his eyes, and shot Hermione a lopsided smile, before he made his way down the hallway and out of sight.

"If he wasn't my best friend I would declare him as no fun," Sirius stated.

Hermione was frozen to the spot. Half her brain was sketching down the image of Sirius in a towel to later use to make Ginny's head explode, while the other half kept manically chanting "he knows I was in his room last night, he _knows_ I was in his _room_ last night!"

"Hermione?" Sirius waved his hand in front of Hermione's eyes,

"Yelp," Hermione squeaked. _Did I just say yelp?_

"Can I use the shower, or…?"

"No, go right ahead! It's all yours! I'm just going to wait till you're done….out here of course! You'll be in there and I'll be out here. Yep. Don't worry about me!"

Sirius attempted to say something but changed his mind quickly and stepped into the bathroom.

Hermione threw her back against the wall and sighed deeply. She couldn't help but panic. _He was half naked for crying out loud!_ Clasping her hand over her chest, Hermione tried to steady her breath.

"Hermione? I'm going to use the toilet while you're out here trying to breathe or whatever you're doing."

Ron's words moved so fast through Hermione's ears that she barely had a second to realize what he said, before the bathroom door creaked open and fell shut.

Hermione held her breath, waiting.

"Hey!"

Ron screamed and flew out into the hallway. His chest fell up and down with staggered breath.

"Did you open the shower curtain?" Hermione shouted, confused.

"No, he was…he was out of the….I'm going to be sick!" Ron bolted down the hallway and into a spare bedroom. Hermione winced when she heard the faint sounds of retching.

"Arthur is going to behead me soon, I know it," Sirius lamented, coming into the hallway.Hermione couldn't help but laugh and nod her head in agreement. "It's all yours," Sirius said, winking at Hermione, and not attempting to cover his water glistened, slightly boney, chest.

Dragging her eyes away from Sirius, Hermione pulled open the bathroom door.

"Hermione?"

"Ron," Hermione sighed, refusing to let go of the door handle. "I've been waiting to use the shower for quite some time. I'm sorry, but it's my turn."

"Oh, ok, um, yeah." Ron leaned against the wall, wrapping his shaking arms around his stomach. His face looked slightly green and sweaty."I just wanted to tell you that I've accepted your decision, and while I don't approve…it's your life to throw away."

Hermione stared at him. She tried to read the hidden meanings through his eyes. She pondered whether Ron even knew what hidden meanings were. She noted the small streak of blue in his brown eyes, but ignored the small streak of butterflies in her stomach. "I'm not even going to pretend to know what you're talking about," she said, slipping into the bathroom and closing Ron out.

The bathroom was heavy with steam and the smell of soap. She wanted to gag or leave, but the thought of hearing more nonsense from Ron kept her in there.

After her shower, Hermione brushed her hair and felt refreshed. She could feel the old, dingy dust from the house fall from her clean hair. She could feel the embarrassing little girl behavior fade from her brain.

Hermione strutted down to the kitchen for a late breakfast in a happy mood. She pushed open the door and almost gasped at what she saw.

Ginny was standing no more than two centimeters from Remus, her hand casually draped over his arm, her fingers casually circling around his wrist. "I just don't understand any of it," she whined, indicating the book laid open in front of her. "I'm so stupid."

"Ginny!" Remus draped his arm around Ginny and hugged her close to his side. "Don't ever call yourself stupid. You're the farthest thing from dumb."

"Will you help me understand it?" Ginny asked, her eyes slowly traveling to Hermione. "_Remus?_"

"Of course I will; after lunch, ok?"

Ginny nodded and rested her head on Remus's shoulder. She winked at Hermione, who was positive that any second now, her head would explode.


	14. Manic Insanity

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Thank you, THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed/commented/or read! This chapter is much longer than the last one, so enjoy:D

Hermione felt a cold, sweaty palm wrap around her mouth, while another set of fingers grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled her back out of the kitchen.

Grasping her wand and spinning around, Hermione relaxed when her eyes fell on a blue haired Tonks, and not someone who was actually trying to kidnap her.

"Why did you do that?" Hermione whispered, trying her best to recapture some form of normal breathing.

"Well," Tonks started out, turning on her heels and motioning for Hermione to follow her over to the one dust covered couch, stretched out against the far wall. "I didn't want you to start screaming and yelling at what you saw in the kitchen; if you saw what I saw, which I can presume you did see."

Hermione lowered herself slowly onto the cushion next to where Tonks sat, trying to comprehend what she was saying. "Are…you mean Ginny and Professor Lupin?" She found herself feeling too awkward as it was, at the moment, to call Professor Lupin anything but Professor.

Tonks nodded her head knowingly. She folded her arms across her chest and fell back into a lounging position on the couch, sending a small fury of dust up as she hit the cushion. "She's in a dangerous area, that Ginny Weasley."

Hermione crossed her legs and sat up with perfect posture. If she was going to be found bad mouthing her best friend behind her back, she was at least going to be sitting in some kind of adult, lady-like position. "I really don't know what's going through Ginny's mind," she lied. "In fact, I had no clue that she even fancied, _ahem_, Remus."

"Professor Lupin."

"Right."

"You had no idea? Not even a tiny idea?"

Hermione thought for a moment. The only words that had come out of Ginny's mouth for the past week had been words associated with describing the hotness of one Sirius Black. Ginny never said anything about thinking Remus was handsome or even nice. "I honestly had no idea," Hermione confirmed.

"Then why is she flirting with him?" Tonks whined, sounding like she was also thirteen. Hermione pushed aside her rising annoyance, and her desire to get up and seek refuge in a book.

"Ginny is mad at me," Hermione stared out, but stopped when she saw Tonks' eyes narrow in on her in deathly slits. "Because I'm boring; she's mad at me because I'm boring." Tonks nodded, sat back, and returned her eyes to their natural friendly, round appearance. "Ginny doesn't have anything better to do with her time, than flirt with grown man and act completely childish." Hermione paused for a moment, to recollect her thoughts. "Mr. Weasley had a talk with her, this morning," she continued, explaining things more to herself than Tonks. "But, I guess it wasn't in reference to her immature behavior."

Hermione paused again; but this time because she heard her own words and they sounded weird to her ears. They sounded old. She was fairly positive that if she was in a dark room, and someone spoke those words out loud, that she would have immediately presumed that person to be an older woman, possibly Professor McGonagall. It didn't sound like a normal fourteen year old girl. Hermione suddenly felt worried about her mental age.

Tonks, on the other hand, seemed to not be aware, in the slightest, that an old woman was living inside Hermione's brain. She sat there, snorting every other second and tapping a finger, complete with an electric blue, fake finger nail, (that Hermione knew for a fact was against Auror dress guidelines), against the tip of her nose. "They really need to have more control over that girl. She's wild!"

Hermione had to admit, not out loud, that she disagreed with Tonks. Ginny wasn't wild. She wasn't even doing anything that outrageous; even to the straight-laced standards of Hermione "aged 77 on the inside". Ginny was being childish, and eccentric, but not wild. Hermione sighed at her own revelation.

Tonks sighed for a whole different reason.

"Hermione?" Tonks asked, sitting up and strumming her fingers on her knees. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, Tonks," Hermione beamed. She turned her body so that she was directly facing Tonks. Hermione, in an attempt to appear more "young girl" and less "aging psychiatrist", brought her knees up to her chest and folded her arms around them.

"Ok," Tonks whispered, her face turning a slightly pale form of red, and not because she was making them. "Do you think that Remus fancies me? You know, in a way other than how he fancies Sirius?"

Hermione's mind was plummeted with so many thoughts, that there was an avalanche in her brain. She, first of all, thought the concept of discussing whether or not Remus fancies someone other than herself, extremely rude on Tonks' part; not that Hermione fancies Remus...or that Tonks would even know if she fancied Remus; which she doesn't.

_And in what way does Remus fancy Sirius? I really need to stop having these kinds of conversations._

"Hermione?"

Tonks' voice brought Hermione back to reality. "Um," she stuttered. "I really…"

"Oh, Hermione," Tonks chirped. "You can answer my question! Don't feel embarrassed. Here…_ahem_, based on the evidence gathered during the numerous meetings between Remus John Lupin and Nymphadora-_ugh_ I hate my first name-Tonks, it is apparent that the probability of a meaningful relationship existing between the two is…." Tonks extended the 's' of the last word she spoke, and held her hand out to allow Hermione to take over.

"Bad."

"What?" Tonks asked in a low voice, her face falling into a confused frown.

Hermione thought about all the interactions she's witnessed between Tonks and Remus. "The numbers are not in your favor," she stated.

"I _demand_ a recount!"

Hermione sighed and slammed her head into her knee caps. "Why do you even like him?" she asked, her voice muffled by her legs.

"Because," Tonks started, her voice adopting a higher pitch. "He's not like other men."

Hermione nodded slightly, still curled against her legs.

"He's smart, so smart. And nice; and a good conversationalist, and he loves to read…not that I do, but it's nice that he does. And he has the most beautiful eyes, and he's…drop…dead…gorgeous _who_ is _that_?"

Hermione's head snapped up to see Tonks' eyes glazed over and locked on a spot beyond Hermione's head.

Turning, Hermione spotted the object of Tonks' questioning.

Fred and George were standing at the bottom of the staircase, talking animatedly to another, less familiar, but defiantly more muscular, red-headed Weasley.

"That's Charlie, I think," Hermione whispered. She narrowed her eyes, and caught a glimpse of a rather large, bubbling red burn on the side of his right hand. "Yep, defiantly Charlie," she said, turning back to face Tonks.

Hermione was shocked for a moment to see Tonks' hair rapidly changing color and styles. "Introduce me…to him," she said, her hair finally settling on short, messy, garnet colored curls.

"What happened to Remus?"

"Who?" Tonks asked, twisting a stray curl around her finger, and staring over Hermione's shoulder.

Hermione didn't know whether she should be appalled or happy; but she didn't have much time to decide before Tonks squeaked and nodded towards the approaching Weasley.

"Hello, Hermione," Charlie said. "Nice to see you again."

"Hello, Charlie," Hermione responded, politely. She honestly didn't find Charlie to be that attractive, like Tonks obviously did. _Maybe if he was taller, like Ron, he'd be a little bit cuter_, Hermione found her self thinking, not realizing that she smiled when she thought about Ron.

Tonks squeaked again.

"Oh," Hermione snapped, laughing. "This is Tonks."

"We've met actually, Hermione," Tonks said, in a low, condescending voice that made Hermione want to kill her. "At a meeting a couple of weeks ago; you remember me, right Charlie?"

Charlie's eyebrows rose and he let out a large, snapping laugh. "Of course I remember you, _Nymphadora_. How are you?"

Tonks giggled. "Not bad; not bad. I still hate my name. Are you staying here at headquarters now?" Tonks twirled another curl around her finger, and giggled again,

Hermione wished she was able to one: mentally vomit, and two: mentally tell Tonks to not sound so desperate.

"For a few days, yeah," Charlie said; his eyes traveled from the top strands of hair on Tonks head, down to the lose ties of her sneakers. "Love the hair, by the way."

"Thanks," Tonks cooed, standing up quickly. "Here, I'll play Hostess and show you to your room."

Charlie laughed, and playful bowed to allow Tonks to pass him.

This was all too much for Hermione, who sprang off the couch and bee-lined for the kitchen.

"I was waiting for you to show your face in here again," Ginny spitted out. She was lounging against the table in the middle of the room, a half eaten banana clenched in her left hand.

Hermione sighed loudly. _Is no where safe?_, she screamed in her head. "What is your problem?" she screamed at Ginny.

"My problem is you."

"Will you stop with the corny lines? Merlin, I am so annoyed with _everyone under this roof_!"

"Everyone?" Ginny asked, dropping her banana carelessly onto the floor. "You're not annoyed with _everyone_, I'd bet."

Hermione felt like crying. "What?" she whined.

Ginny walked forward until she was mere inches from Hermione's face. She was so close, that Hermione noticed the banana residue on the corner of her mouth.

"Are you dating Sirius?" Ginny screamed at Hermione.

"What?"

"Are….you….Hermione Granger….dating….Sirius….Black?"

"NnnnnOoooo," Hermione said, angrily copying Ginny's slow speech. "And what on this Earth made you think that?"

"You and your attitude."

Hermione pushed, actually pushed, Ginny away from her. She felt dizzy; like nothing in front of her eyes looked familiar. "I don't have a clue what you're talking about. Is this why you were all over Professor Lupin?"

"Jealous?"

"No."

"I'm sick of your lies, Granger!" Ginny paused. "That's right I called you Granger!"

"Ginny," Hermione said calmly. "Listen to me, ok? Listen to your best friend; someone who would never betray you, or lie to you, or anything. I am _not_ dating or even really _speaking_ to Sirius. Ok?"

Ginny stared at her, her eyebrows furrowing and then un-furrowing, and then repeating. "But, Ron said you were."

Hermione laughed. "And you believed him?"

"He _is_ my brother."

"So are Fred and George and if you believed everything that came out of their mouths, you'd be committed."

Ginny shook her head, and laughed. "Sorry," she whispered.

Hermione nodded with small giggles.

"Well, I've got to go get ready," Ginny said, spinning around towards the door.

"Get ready for what?" Hermione asked.

"I'm going to the cinema with Professor Lupin."

"WHAT?"

"Professor Lupin is taking me to the cinema," Ginny repeated.

"Wait, just wait," Hermione said, she started laughing with manic insanity. "You're going on a date with Professor Lupin…?"

Ginny giggled. "I guess you can call it that," she said, staring at the ceiling and ignoring the fact that Hermione's face was slowly resembling a tomato. "He was telling me about movies, and I told him that I've never been to one. And he said, that that was horrible and I need to experience one right away."

Hermione forgot how to talk.

"But, we're not supposed to talk about it in front ofSirius, so, shh," Ginny added, putting a finger to her lips.

Hermione took a deep breath. This was exactly the behavior she didn't want anything to do with anymore. Even though it hurt a little, she decided to stop being immature and leave that spot open for Ginny.

"Have fun," Hermione said, smiling naturally at Ginny and making her way to and through the door that led to the dining room.

Hermione thought, momentarily about Owling her parents and telling them that she was coming home. Then she saw Mrs. Weasley, sitting all alone in the middle of the table, stirring a spoon around in her cup of tea, and sighing to herself. Hermione decided that if she needed a mother right now, besides her own, there was no one better than Mrs. Weasley.

"Can I sit with you?" Hermione asked timidly, approaching the chair across from Mrs. Weasley.

"Oh, of course, dear; have a seat." Mrs. Weasley smiled weakly at Hermione before reaching for the empty cup and saucer next to her. "Tea?"

"Thank you, please," Hermione said. "Is, is everything all right, Mrs. Weasley?"

There was a great pause, where Mrs. Weasley seemed to be debating in her head whether or not she should tell Hermione. "I'm just worried, as usual, Hermione," she whispered, and then added, "Mostly about Ginny."

Hermione felt that she could now add 'mind reader' to her list oftalents. She began formulating something soothing to say to Mrs. Weasley, when she spoke up first.

"Hermione, do you have anything that you would like to ask me? Or talk about?"

"Concerning Ginny?" Hermione asked, adding milk to her tea.

"Yes, well, concerning anything really. _Anything_ you want. _Anything_."

Even though it seemed apparent to Mrs. Weasley that Hermione looked clueless, she was the farthest thing from. Hermione knew exactly what Mrs. Weasley was refereeing to by her repeating of the word 'anything', but Hermione would rather fully snog Snape than talk about _that_ with _her_.

Then again, she was a mother, and Hermione did have a question only a mother could answer.

"Well," Hermione started out, her voice low and shaky. "At what age should a girl find herself interested in, you know….more than kissing?"

Mrs. Weasley turned white. "Um," she stuttered. "Well, twenty…five. Twenty-five would be a good age. Now, like I was saying, isn't there anything you'd like to get off your chest about what _Ginny_ is, _hem_, doing?"

"Oh," Hermione said, turning redder than Mrs. Weasley's hair. _I guess she wasn't referring to…that. _"Um, Ginny has a crush on…" Hermione gulped. She couldn't say it. "Harry."

"Not Sirius?"

"Nope."

"Not even a little bit?"

"I'd have to say no to that too."

"You're smart, Hermione, right?"

"Y…es," Hermione stammered, a little caught off guard.

"So, if Ginny was doing something she shouldn't be doing, or even thinking about something she shouldn't be doing with someone that should be thinking about someone his own age-" Hermione could feel a small vein burst in the right corner of her skull "-you would agree that it would be smart of you to inform her parents, right?"

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione droned. "Ginny is bored," she added, as an attempt to say something without actually saying it.

"Ginny is…"

"Oh wow! You're muscles are bigger than my head," Tonks giggled, bursting into the dining room, while running her fingers up and down Charlie's biceps.

"Hi, Mum," Charlie said, giving his mother a swift kiss before he turned his attention back to his number one fan.

The two made their way outside, giggling and whispering the whole way.

"My children have no taste," Mrs. Weasley sighed, standing up. "Well, maybe Ron does," she added smiling at Hermione. She picked up her cup and exited the kitchen.

Hermione rubbed her temples and started to recite the outcome of the 1458 French Goblin Revolution in her head, just to make sure she still remembered that there was life outside this insanity.

Then she remembered there was life outside Grimmauld Place; an important life. Hermione stretched her arm down towards the end of the table and pulled over to her a spare piece of parchment and a quill that someone had left there.

She began writing a letter to Harry. She had almost forgotten that his birthday was tomorrow, and she needed to get his package ready. Not knowing what to write, because they weren't allowed to say anything about what they were doing, Hermione simply wrote: _There's a fair amount going on, we'll tell you everything when we see you_. She felt bad that he wasn't there, and even though she had no idea what was really going on, she also added: _I expect we'll be seeing you quite soon. _

Right then Hermione decided that she was going to make a point to pay more attention to what the Order was doing and less to what Ginny was doing.

"What are you doing?"

Hermione jerked her head up, and saw Ginny standing in front of her, peering curiously at Hermione's letter.

"I'm making a birthday card to send to Harry. You do remember Harry?"

"_I_ remember Harry," Sirius shouted, as he came into the room and sat down next to Hermione. "I miss Harry." Sirius frowned down at his lap, and then scooted closer to her. "While Moony takes Ms. Weasley, here, _to the cinema_, you and me, Hermione, will have an 'I miss Harry' party. How's that?"

Hermione could see out of the corner of her eyes that Ginny looked like she was quickly trying to come up with ways to not have to go the cinema. "I would like that, Sirius," Hermione said, smiling, but her heart wasn't in it. "But, I'm not really up for a party. I'm not…in the mood."

The door to the dining room opened, and Remus walked in. He held a large book up to his face, but professionally made his way over to the table and sat down next to Ginny and across from Hermione.

"Hello, Moony," Sirius spat out.

"Hello," Remus said, putting his book down and surveying everyone around him. "Hermione?" he said, when his eyes fell on her. "What's the matter?"

"She's in a mood," Ginny mumbled.

"I've been meaning to ask you if you'd like to come to the movies with me and Ginny."

Identical smiles blasted over both girls' faces. "Sure," Hermione squeaked. She actually enjoyed movies, and hoped it was something foreign that they were going to see.

"Here's a brilliant idea," Ginny squeaked, rising about a foot in her chair. "How about just you two go to the movies? I'm not all excited about seeing that…I can't pronounce the title it's in gibbish or something,"

"French," Remus said, laughing.

"Exactly."

"Well, if you want to, Ginny, but you'll be missing out."

"And I'm heartbroken over it," Ginny said dramatically.

Hermione shook her head at Ginny and then stood up abruptly. "I better go get Harry's birthday present together with Ron's so that we can mail them."

"There's an Order meeting tonight," Remus spoke up quickly. "I'll come find you when it's done?"

Hermione nodded her head excitedly and practically skipped out of the room.

"I think she speaks gibberish, that's why she's so excited," Ginny commented.

Remus grabbed Ginny's shoulder and shook her gently. "There is still hope for you, I know it," he laughed. "Well, I have to prepare my report for the meeting. Can I use your spare study room, Sirius?"

"Go right ahead, Moony," Sirius said. "Just don't open the drawer that's marked 'ink'. That's a warning."

Remus left the room with a worried, confused look on his face.

Sirius turned his attention to Ginny and leaned forward in his seat. "So, Ginny," he said, with a smirk. "What do you want to do today?"

Ginny straightened out the collar of her shirt and got the most brilliant idea.


	15. Fresh Oxygen

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: THANK YOU everyone! And I'm very ecstatic that you all think this is getting better and not going no where...I love writing comedy, and sometimes have feelings that I'm not as funny as I think I am. Oh, well, lol! Anyways, HAPPY _belated_ VALENTINES DAY to you all :D

It was quiet. Unusually quiet. The Order meeting was nearing its end, luckily this time void of wicked shouts exchanged between a certain escaped convict and his arch enemy.

Ron was in his room, writing and re-writing his letter to Harry; wanting to tell him everything, and having to settle with nothing.

Even the twins abandoned their normal clever post at the top of the stairwell, with extendable ears scraping the floor near the kitchen door, for more important, and ultra secret business.

Hermione suspects that they are desperately trying to create her 'mood-reading, skin-changing' candy; but, at the moment, she is too busy to educate the boys about royalties. Instead she sits in front of her mirror, staring at her face and trying to recall the exact second, of the exact minute, of the exact hour that that horribly red, round lump of inflamed skin decided to pop up on the very tip of her nose. Not that she should really care, and she doesn't.

Ginny paces the bathroom. Something about tonight makes her not want to sit and stare into space with Hermione. Maybe because she got a swift view of the new addition to Hermione's nose and she would only laugh cruelly at her. Or maybe because she can't wait to come back to that room that night, overflowing with bubbling stories, and she doesn't want to spoil her anticipation with nonsense chitter chatter.

Or maybe because if she pretends to be in the bathroom for a "real reason" and not because she's wasting time, no one will accidentally see what she has hidden in the deepest locale of the front pocket of her jeans.

She giggles just thinking about it.

Hermione, back in her room, prods the loaded pimple gingerly with her wand, but can't conjure the guts to blast it off. She's very much attached to her nose; and it, needless to say, is more than very much attached to her.

She sighs and puts her wand back in its home in her back pocket. She shouldn't be caring about a pimple. Everyone gets them; and who is she trying to impress?

She thinks about it, and sighs again. _That's right_, she says to herself, and reaches for the makeup compact in her purse.

Finally, a familiar noise of shuffling feet echo up through the house. Ginny squeals; Hermione ignores her want to squeal. Ron ignores Hermione's presence in the house all together.

The creaky, rarely used hinges of the front door scream every now and then as it opens to allow the escape of the few lucky Order members who don't have to call number 12 Grimmauld Place home.

It's about this time that they usually hear the loud crash, closely followed by high-pitched shrills and frantic apologies. But, today the umbrella stand in the front hall has been spared a tumble; Ginny and Hermione wonder where Tonks must be.

For a few ear ringing moments, silence once again descends on the house, before a crisp knocking is heard on Hermione's door.

"Hermione?" Remus asks, fingers still rapping on the old wood.

Hermione chokes on her own smile and leaps to the door. "Hello," she said, in a bright voice.

"Ready?" Remus beams and moves slightly to the side to allow Hermione to step out into the hall.

"Yes," she said, feeling little girlish as she gazes up at Remus's handsome, but worn face. "It'll be nice to get out of this house for a bit."

Remus nods, and laughs from the bottom of his throat. "Well, we're going to have to walk a little. So, you'll be getting a fair share of fresh oxygen this night."

_Maybe it'll help her…if you can call that beast a pimple_, Ginny thinks to herself as she leans against the bathroom door and listens to Hermione and Remus pass her by unaware.

She taps her pocket and peers out of the window over the sink. Tiny specks of stars are beginning to show their faces. The night is perfect, no chance of rain, and hardly any wind.

She can't help but think that she's too clever for her own good, as she steps out of the bathroom and quickly, but calmly, bee-lines for the dining room.

Sirius sits alone at the large dining room table, strumming his fingers to an unheard rhythm.

Ginny smiles wide, and pretends to drag her feet over to the chair across from him, when in actuality she probably could float if she really tried.

"Hullo," she sighs, falling into the seat.

"Hey," Sirius nods, his eye lids closed slightly, and he shakes himself awake with a jaw-cracking yawn. "I'm bored," he says, pouting.

Ginny suddenly feels older than Sirius, but shrugs it off.

"The meeting nearly knocked me unconscious," Sirius continues. "Plus Moony gets to go have a night out and I'm stuck in here…with the cobwebs and the dust bunnies."

"And me," Ginny squeaks, indignantly.

"Oh, and of course the lovely Ms. Ginevra Weasley; how dare I forget." Sirius smirks, and winks.

Ginny inwardly melts, and swallows. "You wish you could leave the house?" she asks, gently.

Sirius runs his fingers through his long mane of black hair. "Yeah," he whispers, pathetically.

Ginny paused for a moment, a smile desperately trying to burst over her face, and stood up. Sirius watched her strut around the table, and over to him, with a mix of confusion and amusement. He's also too tired to really process anything going on, and hopes that whatever Ginny does, his inclusion could be blamed on sleep deprivation.

With a tiny skippy leap, Ginny bounces into the empty chair next to Sirius, no longer able to hide her excitement.

"Are you all right?" Sirius asks her, laughing against his better judgment.

All Ginny could do is extravagantly nod her head, and slide her legs out, while lifting her pelvis up. Her hand now slips easily into the front pocket of her jeans and she pulls out a thin red string, with a sliver buckle hanging from the bottom.

Sirius eyes widen, before he frantically scans the kitchen. "Where did you get that?" he hissed.

"When mum took us to Hogsmeade after lunch, so Ron could buy one last thing for Harry, I snuck away from the group and bought it," she whispered, dangling the dog leash in between herself and Sirius, whose eyes never left it.

Sirius made an odd gurgling giggle like sound, and ripped the leash from Ginny's hand. "Thank you, Ginny, but…it's not like we can go anywhere."

"Why not?"

"Your mum; she's watching me, she said today," Sirius said, imitating Mrs. Weasley's scorching glare, and making Ginny laugh. "Plus, she'll go insane if she finds out you left the house and didn't tell her where you went."

Ginny leaned forward. "She doesn't think I'm here," she whispered.

Sirius barley got a chance to ask what that meant, when the dining room door burst open and a whistling Mrs. Weasley waddled in. Ginny squeaked and professionally slid under the table.

"Sirius," Mrs. Weasley sang. "The meetings over."

"Really?" Sirius responded, dropping his head to the side.

"I know Remus took the girls to the movies-"

"Girl_s_?" Sirius glanced under the table, raising his eyebrows in shock.

"So, if you're bored, you can help me do some more cleaning."

"Thank you, Molly, but I think…I've got things to do…upstairs….with Buckbeak."

"Fine, fine…I'll clean _your_ house by _myself_. Don't even worry about it!" Mrs. Weasley stormed out of the room, mumbling to herself about laziness.

Ginny climbed out from under the table, grinning from ear to ear.

"Who are you?" Sirius asked, copying Ginny's smile.

"The younger sister of Fred and George Weasley; come on!" Ginny grabbed Sirius' hand and dragged him to the back door.

"I haven't been outside for…almost two months," he stated, peering out the glass pane of the door. He allowed the bubble of giggles to escape his lips, before he sank to the floor, changing from handsome brunette into giant, shaggy dog.

Ginny slipped the collar over Sirius' head, and the two sprinted out of the house and into the encompassing hot, fresh air. The tall, shadowy, haven't been cut for more than a century bushes were the perfect barriers between them and the bright, large windows of Grimmauld Place.

Stopping, Ginny giggled looking down at Sirius, who began rolling around on the ground and nipping at a passing rabbit. "Don't bark….Snuffles?" Ginny couldn't quite remember what Hermione said Sirius' dog name was.

Sirius pounced up on Ginny's shoulders and licked the side of her face. She took that as a yes.

Sirius and Ginny leapt around the garden, chasing shadows and defenseless critters.

They raced around an old tree, and when Ginny felt her calves burning with the want to sit down and stop exercising, Sirius nudged her onto his back, and took her on another chase around a group of bushes, that were once cut to look like towering snakes, but now just resembled lopsided noodles.

Near an old, rusted bench, snuggled between two large square bushes, Ginny flopped off of Sirius back and onto the warm, prickly grass. She looked back at the mansion, (unfortunately, they weren't far enough away from it, for it to disappear from sight), before the scene was covered by a dangling red tongue. Sirius licked Ginny's face frantically, making her squeal and push him away.

Ginny wiped the spit off her eyes and looked over at the dog, except the dog was gone.

Sirius, back to his human form, inhaled as much fresh oxygen as he could, eyes staring up at the silver streaked sky. "This was fun," he said. "It makes me sad…but happy too."

Ginny nodded, not quite understanding him, but liking that he was finally talking and not panting and slobbering.

"We should get back inside. Remus and Hermione will be home soon."

Pouting, Ginny stood and locked eyes with Sirius. She wanted to say something, something intelligent right there, something charming, something that would make Sirius wonder where she's been all his life; but her trace of thoughts were cut off with the horrifying sounds of lips smacking and giggling moans.

Sirius furrowed his eyebrows and glanced discreetly around the bush. He snapped back, his face lit with shock and the desire to laugh. He beckoned Ginny closer. "Get ready to run," he whispered.

Sirius crawled across the grass. Ginny followed him, looking around the bush to see what was there.

She gasped, quickly covering her eyes.

"Boo!" Sirius screamed.

Tonks screamed. Charlie attempted to grab his wand, forgetting that in a rush of passion he threw it across the field.

Sirius swiftly grabbed Ginny's hand, and practically flew up the short path to the house, slipping through the door.

Ginny clutched her side with the hand that wasn't holding desperately onto Sirius', trying to breath through her laughter. "Ch…Char…lie…and _Tonks_?" she choked out.

Sirius nodded, and wavered slightly, bumping his hips into Ginny's.

"I'm going to tell," Tonks bellowed at Sirius, slamming the door after Charlie stepped through it.

"Tell what, Tonks?" Mr. Weasley said, as he walked into the dining room, from the kitchen. "Charlie! Why weren't you at the meeting?"

"Um," Charlie said, blushing. "I…I…"

"He was taking a nap!" Tonks spoke up. "And I was, uh, lunch made me sick…if you know what I mean."

Mr. Weasley nodded, raising his eye brows. "That's good enough," he said, making his way though the dining room, but before he exited through into the next room, he paused and spun around. "But, Sirius, maybe you would like to tell me why you allowed my _young daughter to take you for a walk!_?"

Sirius quickly dropped Ginny's hand, as her mouth fell open. Her father looked scary in the dim light of the dining room. He had more shadows under his eyes, and seemed to have grown double his normal size.

"Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley burst into the room and wrapped her arms around her daughter. Then pulling back, she violently shook her. Ginny pondered pressing charges. "Why did you lie and tell me you were with Remus?"

Ginny's mind was blank. She couldn't come up with anything to say. For a moment she thought about repeating what Tonks said moments before, but Tonks was still standing there, smirking; but what angered Ginny more is that neither Tonks nor anyone in the room has yet to realize that the buttons on Tonks shirt were stuck into a hole one down from their normal places.

A small cough broke the deadening silence, and Ginny suddenly noticed the presence of Remus and a confused looking Hermione.

"I…I'm sorry mum," Ginny whispered, on the verge of tears; fake tears, but tears nonetheless.

"You could have caused a whole list of problems, Ginevra! Don't you ever do anything like that again," Mrs. Weasley hugged her daughter one more time. Then she turned to Sirius, eyes nothing but black slits. "I'm watching you," she hissed.

"Sirius, if Dumbledore found out…"

Mr. Weasley streamed out threats and reminders towards Sirius, who stood there exchanging weird, half smiling,looks with Remus.

Hermione inched her way over to Ginny. She shook her head, eyed the leash still around Sirius' neck, and back to Ginny. "I wish I'd though of that," she whispered.


	16. Poker Dare

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Sorry that I'm posting this on wednesday and not my usual monday. School assignments are taking time away from my fanfic writings! But anyways, this chapter is super long, so it makes up for that.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to **haters r gonna rock dis world** (no, I don't play the guitar...but I do know how to read music), **Le Grimoire** (there's slightly more Remus/Hermione in this chapter :D),** Uturnwow**, **thehpgang** (thanks soo much...and I agree with what you said about Tonks, I'm not very good at getting her charachter down), and **YamiClara** for always commenting and reading. And thanks to everyone who didn't comment but read...I've got love for everyone, lol! Enjoy :D

"And another thing!"

Sirius recoiled slightly under the gust of words flying from Mrs. Weasley's mouth. He looked at Remus who seemed to be on the edge of humiliation or laughter. He avoided Sirius's glances.

Ginny and Hermione stood centimeters apart, whispering hisses into the other's ears. Slowly, Sirius noticed from the corner of his eye socket, the two girls stepping backwards, trying to move at an unnoticeable pace to the door. Once they were there, they were gone.

"Molly," Sirius stated, holding his hand up in front of Mrs. Weasley's face, complete with bugging eyeballs. "This isn't fair," Sirius continued. "Moony takes me out to walk all the time!"

"Remus!"

"He's lying, Molly," Remus said, shaking his head menacingly at Sirius.

"It's still not fair."

"Listen, Sirius," Mr. Weasley cooed, stepping in between Sirius and his small tomato faced wife. "We just want you to be careful, all right?"

Mrs. Weasley elbowed her husband bull's-eye in the ribs. "And stay away from our daughter," he added, oddly smiling and scurrying after Mrs. Weasley, who fled the dining room in a huff.

Sirius's slightly grubby, slender hand swept across his forehead, taking the small drops of sweat that had developed there with it. "It was worth it," he said, beaming at Remus.

"I'm glad, Padfoot," Remus mocked, moving in front of Sirius. "I'm glad that exposing yourself…I mean, exposing your whereabouts. Stop snickering! This is serious! You could have been hurt; Ginny! Ginny could have been hurt or kidnapped, or Merlin knows!" Sirius licked his lips, his tongue lingering slightly at the corners. He looked truly sorry, for the first time…ever. "If you like Ginny so much, then you wouldn't have allowed her to risk everything. Just…I know this is frustrating-"

"You have no idea," Sirius murmured.

"I do, Padfoot. And I'm sorry that you have to stay here…but you just have to deal with it. Tonks, the buttons are all wrong on your blouse."

Tonks looked down at her chest and squeaked, cheeks instantly turning red. She looked at Charlie, who was smirking, then Sirius, who was purposely not looking at his cousin, and then Remus, who was picking at a scab on his thumb.

A very, very sexy scab.

"Oh, Remus! I'm so sorry!" Tonks launched herself at Remus's knees, wrapping her arms around his legs. Remus tried to jump back, but didn't want to risk falling on his spinal cord.

"I was caught up in the moment! I wasn't thinking!" Tonks stood up and grasped Remus's hand. "He means nothing to me…I was just bored! I had nothing to do!"

Remus managed to raise and furrow his eyebrows at the same time, and made to shoot a confused look over at Sirius, but he was gone. In his place was a narrowed eye and glaring Charlie Weasley.

"I hope you don't think any less of me, Remus. Remus, do you? Cause you can tell me, I can take it." Tonks stood up straight, sticking her chin out.

"Sirius, sit," Remus shouted, pointing his finger behind his back, to where Sirius was trying to escape. With the after effects of dog lingering, Sirius shot into an empty seat. "Tonks? Please?" Remus added, motioning for Tonks to join Sirius at the table.

Charlie slid, his gaze not moving from Remus, into another empty chair.

Leaning forward, so that her chin rested squarely on the table top, Tonks began fidgeting with the buttons on her blouse, without exposing something to someone, mainly Sirius, she would rather them not see.

Remus pulled out a chair next to Sirius and sank back against it.

"So, Moony," Sirius said, stretching so that his feet could reach, and rest, on the chair across from him. "How was your date?"

"Wait," Charlie spoke up, completely missing the look of horror on Remus's face. "If Tonks was here…_with me_…then who did you go on a date with?"

"Hermione," Remus answered, distantly.

"Granger?"

"Yes…oh! It wasn't a date!" Remus's face became one big red blotch and he refused to acknowledge Sirius's snickering and Tonks's loud, incoherent mumbling. "No, it wasn't a date," he continued. "I just took her to the movies. Ginny was supposed to come to…but obviously she had something better to do."

Sirius winked, much to Remus's disgust.

"Why are you two, grown men, hanging out with my thirteen year old sister and her not much older than that friend?"

"BeDerZordor…whatever, ridistupidgitsI'mgonna." Tonks voice faded into mere puffs of air.

"Tonksie?" Sirius asked cautiously, leaning forward in his chair.

"Hmm?" Tonks responded, locking her eyes on him.

"Have you been drinking?"

"No."

"Smoking?"

"No."

"Oh, ok; you have a concussion."

"No!"

Sirius resumed his lounging position. "Then stop babbling nonsense. It's really annoying me. Go on, Moony."

Remus sighed, and tired to look apologetic to Tonks, but she wasn't having it. "There's not much to tell, Sirius," Remus began. "We had to walk to town; and that was nice. She told me all about this program called S.P.E.W. that she is working on; something that my down-trodden, sympathetic side liked. The movie was perfect. And on the way home…she asked me questions about my transformations and why I wanted to become a professor. She said that she admired me…which was, was just fantastic to hear. She's a nice girl."

Remus sighed again, unconsciously picking at his scab, which had obtained a new sticky red color. He almost forgot that he wasn't alone in the room.

Sirius sat next to him, a look of pure happiness across his face; it's been years since he's seen his Moony like that.

Tonks's eye had become pink, puffy slits, which she quickly corrected with a face squeeze.

Charlie stared at Tonks; a string of drool threatening to slide down his chin.

Ron came into the dining room, unfortunately, during the middle of Remus's summary. He sat next to Tonks, confused and murderous looking.

"Remus?" All five heads snapped towards the new voice. Mr. Weasley's balding red head was sticking around the kitchen door. "Severus is here, with your supply."

Remus nodded, and stood up.

"You'll need protection," Sirius stated, shooting up from his seat. "Uh, uh! Don't roll your eyes at me, Mr. Lupin. Thank your best mate for coming with you, and preventing any scuffles."

"Five galleons say he starts them," Charlie whispered to Ron, who had moved to sit next to him.

Ron shook his head. "I'm not that stupid," he said.

Tonks made as much noise as possible as she got up from the table. "That man," she shouted pointing towards the door; "is a diamond amongst stones." Tonks waved her hand around the room.

"Hey," Ron and Charlie shouted in unison, but Tonks was all ready stumbling out the door.

"That man is a _git_," Charlie grumbled. "He's smart, nice, and-I-have-nothing-against-werewolves, but…why is she crazy about him?"

"Something I ask myself daily," Ron added. "It's because he's _intelligent_, that's why. She likes to have _intelligent_ conversations about _intelligent_ things."

"And he's tall. Mutant tall…not that he's a mutant. But, women like tall men, and she's short! So I bet she likes feeling protected."

"But he's so old?" Ron exclaimed, screwing his face up.

"She probably likes older men! She probably feels that they know more…they've had more experience." Charlie nodded his head and sat back in his chair, eyes still fixed on the door.

"It's odd, really."

"Very," Charlie agreed.

"You know, she used to fancy Sirius."

"What? I thought they were cousins?"

"What?" Ron tore his eyes from the door, to stare confusedly at his brother.

"We aren't talking about the same girl are we?"

"Ron? Charlie?" Mr. Weasley called as he walked back into the dining room. "Oh, good; I was hoping you would still be in here. Look at what I…borrowed….from work."

Mr. Weasley laid a pack of red checkered cards in the middle of the table. Ron sat up on his shins to get a better look at it. "What is that, Dad?"

"They're called playing cards," Mr. Weasley said. He picked the cards up, lying them back down with their symbols and numbers showing.

"Oh, I've heard of these," Charlie said, picking up one of them. "Do you know any games?"

"Ow, Remus! You're embarrassing me in front my arch enemy!"

Remus, dragging Sirius by the arm, came bursting back into the dining room, followed by a very amused looking Snape.

"Well, I told you not to start trouble! The first thing you did at the door was try to, how did you put it, knock his nose off?"

Remus forced Sirius into an empty chair. Snape placed his cauldron of Wolfsbane down in the corner, barely nodding towards the Weasley's.

"What are those?" Sirius asked, immediately distracted from his hatred towards Snape.

"I believe they're called, playing cards," Mr. Weasley answered, pushing a couple cards towards Sirius.

"Oh yeah," Sirius exclaimed. "We used to play cards all the time at school; remember Moony?"

"You used to play cards, Black?" Snape spoke ahead of Remus. He walked closer to the table, but made sure that Ron was in between himself and Sirius. "I wouldn't have thought you were capable of anything but drooling on yourself."

"That's it!" Sirius shot from his chair, whipping his wand out. Remus forced his hand down with a mere deadly look. "You heard him, Moony," Sirius whined, sitting back down. "If I don't retaliate, he wins!"

Snape dragged a long, bony finger through his greasy, midnight black hair; looking nothing less than the smug king of the world.

"I know how you two can find out who's the better," Charlie said, twirling an ace of spades in between his fingers.

"Poker," Remus said, smiling and picking all the cards up in a neat pile. He sat down at the table and began to shuffle. "Play, Severus," Remus said, pointing to a seat next to him.

"I'd rather melt," Snape mumbled, starting to turn towards the door.

"Chicken," Sirius said. Snape sat down in the empty seat so fast, one might have thought he ran to it; but Snape doesn't run.

"So," Mr. Weasley said, sitting up straight in his chair between Ron and Snape. "How do you play poker?"

* * *

"This is how you play," Hermione stated, sitting cross-legged on her bed. Ginny looked up at Hermione from her spot on the floor.

After having enough gossip about Sirius and Remus, the two got bored. That's when Hermione told Ginny about a game she played at camp one summer before she came to Hogwarts.

"Ok," Hermione continued. "I ask you, truth or dare? And you pick one. If you pick dare, then you have to do anything I tell you to…or else I have to burn you, or something."

Ginny started laughing, her brain all ready listing things to dare Hermione to do.

"If you pick truth," Hermione said, her voice rising in pitch. "Then I get to ask you anything I want and you _have_ to answer…or else, the whole burning thing comes back into play."

Ginny sat up, rubbing her palms together. "I can't believe I haven't heard of this game before. It's brilliant!"

Hermione nodded vigorously. All though she acted excited, underneath she was a flurry of nerves, constantly trying to forget how much she hated truth or dare. Hermione realized that in the face of doomed boredom, she'd result to anything.

"I just wish we had more people," Ginny sighed. Hermione and Ginny shared a wide-eyed look, before both girls screamed for a certain metamorphamagus to come into their room.

"What?" Tonks sighed, walking into Ginny's and Hermione's room. Her eyes were pink and her hair was uncharacteristically disheveled.

"Play truth or dare with us," Ginny demanded, motioning for Tonks to sit on the bed next to Hermione.

Tonks sunk into Hermione's bed, a crazed smirk forming on her face. "All right," she said.

* * *

"Are you in boys?" Mr. Weasley asked impatiently. All heads were turned towards Fred and George, who were sharing a hand and whispering discreetly to each other.

"Come on! We don't have eternity."

"You do, Black," Snape spoke up, his hand of cards pressed against his chest. "Or has Dumbledore cut your leash?"

Sirius growled, but knew better than attacking Snape with Remus and Mr. Weasley so close.

The eight men sat in a circle at the table, various piles of Knuts stacked up in front of them.

"Fold," Fred and George finally decided, in unison.

"All right," Charlie said. "Show your cards."

Sirius, Remus, Ron and Snape laid their hands on the table.

"Professor Snape wins again," Charlie proclaimed over the chorus of loud grumbling, as he shoved a pile of Knuts towards the smirking potions master.

* * *

"Truth or dare?" Ginny hissed, leering close to Hermione.

Hermione pushed Ginny's laughing face away. "Truth," she said, reluctantly.

Ginny sat back on her knees, tapping her pointer finger on her chin. Shifting restlessly on the bed, Hermione secretly wished that Ginny would suddenly go mute.

"Ok," Ginny said, a wide, cheek splitting smile slapped across her face. Tonks practically squirmed with anxious delight. "How do you really feel about…my brother?"

"Which one?"

"Ron!"

"Oh," Hermione whispered. Her head fell forward, so that her chin was touching her chest. She really didn't know what she thought of Ron. He was nice.

"He's nice," she said.

"That's all?" Ginny exclaimed. Deep down, Ginny felt like Hermione was more of a sister than a friend; probably because Ginny didn't have any sisters. She often hoped that Hermione would end up with Ron, or any of her brothers, so that she could really be her sister.

Of course, Ginny would never say any of that out loud.

"Come on, Hermione," Tonks said, elbowing Hermione in the arm.

"What? He's nice and…I don't know! You asked me how I really feel and that's my answer. I really feel that he is nice."

Ginny pursed her lips. "You don't have to take the questions so literally, you know?"

"I wonder what 'nice' is really referring to," Tonks teased, through giggles.

Hermione sank her head down again, this time to cover her reddening cheeks.

* * *

"Yes, pass the Knuts to your new kings!"

Charlie hesitantly slid the large pile of bronze coins over to Fred and George, who were bouncing smugly in their chairs.

"They cheated," Ron accused, throwing his losing hand down on the table.

"No pouting, baby brother."

"Yeah, only losers pout."

"Just shut-up, and deal," Ron mumbled, sitting back in his chair.

* * *

"Wotcher, Ginny," Tonks said, snapping her fingers in front of Ginny's face. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth!"

"Ok," Tonks said, clearing her throat and sitting up. "Do you think Remus fancies me?"

"Tonks," Hermione laughed.

"You're not supposed to ask questions about yourself," Ginny whined.

"But-" Ginny shook her head and pouted. "All right!"

Tonks sat on Hermione's bed, strumming her fingers on her thighs. She sighed four times in a row before her face lit up, and she glared at Ginny. "Why Sirius?" she asked.

Ginny fell backwards, her face turning pinker by the second. "Honestly?" she asked, sitting back up.

Tonks nodded, and Hermione covered up her spreading smile.

"I'm bored."

Hermione and Ginny shared a quick look. Hermione knew more than well that Ginny was only sharing half the truth of why she liked Sirius; leaving out the tasty fact that he's completely gorgeous, and funny, and flirty and-

"Who's next?" Tonks asked.

* * *

"I fold," Snape announced, neatly piling his cards next to him.

"It's just Remus and Charlie, then," Mr. Weasley said.

Remus looked down at his five, medium high, piles of Knuts. He hated betting money, actually. He was hoping they would be playing with biscuits.

"I think I'll raise," Charlie said. He pushed two piles of Knuts towards the middle of the table, and smirked at Remus.

"I'll have to fold then," Remus sighed. He wanted to leave the game with extra money, and not extra room in his pockets.

"Oh come on, Lupin," Charlie whined. Looking down at his cards, he reached towards the middle of the table and pulled his two piles back over to him. "Here, let's wager something better."

Remus paled slightly, but was happy to not be losing any more money.

"Who ever wins this hand," Charlie started. "Gets Tonks."

"I fold."

* * *

"Here's the moment you've been waiting for, Tonks! Truth or dare?"

Tonks narrowed her eyes at Hermione. "Dare," she drawled.

Hermione and Ginny giggled helplessly. Hermione slid off the bed, to sit next to Ginny on the floor. The two stared at the ceiling, each trying to come up with something for Tonks to do.

Tonks pretended to yawn impatiently, and fell across Hermione's bed.

"Got it," Hermione shouted finally. Ginny squealed next to Hermione, excited to hear something wicked spill from her friend's mouth.

Only that wasn't what she got.

"Tonks," Hermione stared. "I dare you to go downstairs and start a conversation about…Keats; an intelligent conversation."

"Who the bloody hell is Keats?" Ginny asked, angered by the lack of groping or deranged dancing from Hermione's dare.

"He's a poet," Hermione supplied. "You don't even have to know who he is, Tonks," she added, looking at Tonks bewildered face. "Just mention his name, and Professor Lupin will go on and on about him."

Hermione decided, after Tonks asked Ginny if she thought Remus fancied her, that perhaps Tonks deserved a chance at Remus, more than anyone else. She just needs the correct push; and Hermione, ignoring her reluctance, supplied the nudge.

"Keats, huh?" Tonks asked. She scrunched her face up and changed her blue spiky hair, into reddish-brown waves.

* * *

"Well, well, well," Sirius declared. "I always knew it would come down to us, Snivellus."

Snape and Sirius sat directly in front of each other. Each holding onto five cards, and licking their lips.

"Raise," Snape spat, flipping a couple Knuts into the middle pile.

"That's all you've got," Sirius said, pushing a huge pile towards the middle.

"I fold," Remus sighed.

"Were you in, Moony?"

Remus nodded, and began counting the piles in front of him.

The door to the kitchen flung open suddenly, and in walked a brunette that the entire room had to stare at before they realized it was Tonks.

"Remus," Tonks called, much to Charlie's disappointment. Tonks sat on top of the table next to Remus and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Yes?" he responded, mentally subtracting and adding how many Knuts he gained since the game started.

"How about that poet, Ke-"

"Why don't you end it right now, Black?" Snape spoke up. "Let mummy's and daddy's old safe buy you more dog treats and leave the real money for someone who can actually go to a store and spend it."

"That's it," Sirius screamed, rising to his feet, and trying to fling himself across the table. Mr. Weasley managed to grab onto Sirius's robes and stop him; but the shock wave across the table, was enough to knock Tonks to the floor.

Remus was too busy trying to settle Sirius down, that neither he, nor anyone in the room, noticed Tonks crawling out.

"You didn't fall, did you?" Ginny asked, barely able to control her laughter.

Tonks grumbled as she pulled herself up onto the kitchen counter, where the girls now occupied.

"Who's next?" Hermione asked. She didn't want to know what happened in there.

"You," Ginny shouted. "Truth or dare? Actually, dare or dare?"

Hermione frowned. The over-achiever in her, hated to lose; and with a dare, you almost always lost something.

"I dare," Tonks spoke up, still rubbing her bruised bottom. "I dare you, Hermione, to go in there…and kiss Remus Lupin."

"Are you nuts?" Hermione and Ginny screamed, in unison. Hermione was slightly shocked to see Ginny mad and not smirking mischievously.

"What?" Tonks shouted right back to them. "You girls are all talk! I want to see some action!"

Ginny turned to Hermione. "You have to do it; she dared you."

"I am _not_ doing that," Hermione stated, stamping her foot for effect.

"Then, I'm sorry," Ginny whispered, solemnly. She walked over to the fire place. Picking up the tongs, she used them to grab a piece of coal that was so hot it shined with a red tinge. "We'll have to burn you."

"What?" Hermione screamed, running away from Ginny, and the coal.

"That's the punishment, Hermione," Ginny explained. "If you don't do the dare, you get burned. You made the rules!"

Hermione sighed, and attempted to pull her own hair out. "Fine!" she screamed, throwing her hands out. She turned slowly on her heels, facing the door that led into the dining room.

The men's voice sounded like mere mumbles to her; but the closer she got to the door, everything became drowned out by her over-beating heart.

"Wait," Tonks shouted in a whisper. She held her hand up and lifted her ear higher into the air.

The words, 'I quit', was heard over all the low pitched rumbling.

"I think Remus…yes, Remus is coming!"

Hermione swallowed hard. She wanted to do this at the movies actually. There was one scene where, afterwards, she and Remus smiled at each other and she wanted to kiss him; more than anything in the world.

When she felt the door open, Hermione grabbed Remus' shoulders and planted her lips onto his.

The other pair of lips stiffened, but seconds later softened against hers.

All she could think about was the way everything felt perfect right there. The way Remus's body quivered slightly against hers.

She noticed that he was much shorter than she recalled. Much shorter. In fact, she couldn't understand why Remus was exiting the dining room on his knees. He must be on his knees, how else would Hermione be able to reach his face and shoulders so perfectly? The more Hermione kissed him, the more she realized that his face was unusually soft and smooth, too.

Opening her eyes, Hermione pulled away from the kiss slightly. Casting her eyes up, she saw something that Remus defiantly didn't have.

Shaggy and vibrant _red_ hair.

"R, R, Ron?" Hermione stuttered, before the two friends screamed like they were about to be Avada Kedavra-ed.


	17. K, K, Kisses

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Hello! Sooo sorry that it took forever to update. I had this huge twelve page fiction manuscript to write, and I devoted all my time to it. But now its done! Yea!

Big thanks to: **haters r gonna rock dis world** (good luck with your new band! It sounds awesome!), **Le Grimoire**, **thehpgang **(glad you liked the chapter, and I know its been a while so you probably don't care anymore, but I'll still answer your questions: Remus's scab was just another mark of a recent transformation (poor werewolf), and the whole Charlie and Ron thing was that Charlie was talking about Tonks and Ron was talking about Hermione...it didn't come off exactly as it should have. And I know Snape was way OOC in this, but I love him and wanted to put him in this fic somehow!), **Uturnwow**, **Solecito** (I like Tonks with Charlie better too!), **THUMPER, YamiClara, Shmily, Babyruth,ginny's sister,**and** GAHHHH!** (lol, sorry about the wait, lol)

Ok, so that was completely to long...but thanks again to _everyone_, and read on :D

&&

"R, R, Ron?"

"Her…!" Ron managed, before the pair screamed and Ron ran from the room, a streak of red hair and redder cheeks.

"Hermione?" Ginny whispered, approaching her shocked friend carefully from behind. Mr. Weasley had opened the dining room door, peeking into the kitchen and stared quizzically at the frozen girl with her mouth still hanging open that stood in front of it.

"Everything's fine, Dad," Ginny said sweetly, steering Hermione away from him. She led Hermione over to the sink where Tonks stood, clearly amused by what just happened.

As if struck by invisible lighting, Hermione shook ferociously and grabbed Ginny's and Tonks' hands. "Come on," she hissed. Ginny allowed Hermione to drag her out of the kitchen and into the sitting room. Tonks dropped Hermione's hand, and followed lazily behind her; secretly delighted that Hermione kissed Ron instead of Remus.

Once they reached the sitting room, Hermione let go of Ginny's hand and wobbled, hyperventilating over to a deep black, velvet couch that almost spread the length of the room, and sank down on it. She dropped her head down between her legs, wheezing with the lack of oxygen.

"Hermione?" Ginny whispered again, stepping towards her. "Are you all right? Do you want to talk or…?"

"Whose turn is it?"

"What?" Ginny asked, dropping to sit on the dusty matching arm chair next to the wall.

"Whose turn is it now?" Hermione repeated.

"Ginny's," Tonks supplied, sitting cross legged in the middle of the room. She stifled a yawn, and tried to remember why she was here, at Grimmauld Place, playing Truth or Dare with a couple of teens and not home at her own apartment doing work.

"I dare you Ginny," Hermione shouted, sitting up straight. "To kiss Sirius Black."

"Oh, that's why I'm here," Tonks said, ignoring the fact that she meant to say that in her head. A wicked smile played across her face; this was way too much fun.

Ginny's mouth dropped in shock and she stared straight across the room at Hermione. She wasn't even sure if the girl on the couch was her friend Hermione. The girl on the couch had an odd dangerous glint in her brown eyes, her curly hair was sticking up wildly around her ears, her breath still staggered unevenly into the heavy air, and her lips were an unusually bright red from their recent adventure.

"You're mad," Ginny said, finally. "You've gone insane from snogging Ron…of course, you'd have to be insane in the first place to snog Ron."

"I thought he was Remus!"

"Professor Lupin," Tonks corrected, sternly.

"You," Hermione shouted, pointing at Tonks. "That's the dare, Ginny," she continued, not wanting to yell at Tonks, she is her elder; a very odd, irresponsible elder, but Hermione still didn't want to disrespect.

"Maybe I was going to choose truth, Hermione," Ginny said. "Why are we still playing this, anyways?"

Hermione ran her fingers through her hair. _Anything to stop thinking about kissing Ronald_, Hermione admitted to herself. "We can stop if you want," she said to Ginny.

"I don't," Ginny said, moving and sitting on the very edge of her chair. "But, you should still offer me truth! I mean, the game _is_ called, _truth_ or dare."

Tonks cleared her throat. "You didn't offer her truth before the whole…snog thing."

Hermione smiled smugly at Ginny, nodding her head.

"Oh fine," Ginny sighed standing up. "Why I'm protesting a dare to kiss Sirius is beyond reason in the first place."

Ginny spun towards the door, but stopped before taking any steps. She turned back around and walked over to Hermione.

"Breath?" she asked, before exhaling onto Hermione's face. Hermione screwed her nose up and sat back.

"That was unnecessary," she said. "And you can use a mint."

Ginny fished into her pocket, pulling out a random Bott bean. She raised her eyebrows and popped it into her mouth. "Strawberry," she squeaked, before leaving the room, with purpose in every step.

Hermione had to admit that she was a little shocked that Ginny took her seriously; but then again, why wouldn't she have.

"Um…come on," Tonks squealed, grabbing Hermione's hand. Tonks and Hermione scrambled to the door, and peeked out into the kitchen.

"You know," Hermione whispered. "The fact that you're letting us kiss adult men defiantly puts you under the immature and irresponsible category."

"You should try it there some time," Tonks retorted in a barely audible whisper. Hermione ignored her and peered into the kitchen.

Ginny approached the door, but stopped in her tracks.

Sirius' unmistakable voice was heard streaming from the dining room and into the kitchen. "Game over, then? Guess I win!" His voice was so loud, even Hermione and Tonks were able to recognize it as his.

Ginny turned and winked at the pair of eyes shining through the crack of the kitchen door. Ginny wanted to kiss Sirius, more than anything in the world; but, she couldn't forget that he wasn't alone in that room. Her father and older brothers were in there. The last thing she wanted to do was kiss Sirius in their presence.

A scuffle of chairs was suddenly heard, and the words "I'm leaving" blasted weakly above all the noise.

Ginny's stomach flipped. _How perfect_, she thought. _I can't possibly go in there…so fate's sending him out to me.

* * *

_

"Another victory for the lovely Remus Lupin," Sirius shouted, laughing at his own obnoxiousness.

They all saw what happened when Ron left the room, and Sirius knew that Remus, against his better judgment, was sad that he would never be able to kiss Hermione like Ron could. Plus, Sirius would do anything to not see his best friend lose, once again, to his number one foe.

"I quit," Snape snarled, rising to his feet. "You're cheating, Black. I don't know how, but you are."

Sirius smirked at Snape, ignoring both Remus' and Mr. Weasley's look of warn. "Is ickle Snivellus upset because he lost?" Sirius asked, adopting a sickening baby voice.

"To _him_? Yes," Snape spat, nodding towards Remus.

"What is that supposed to imply?" Sirius said, standing up.

Snape laughed, ignoring Sirius' question. "I have better things to do. See you at the next meeting…unfortunately."

Remus and Mr. Weasley stood, apparently on the verge of bidding good day to their odd poker partner, when Sirius spoke ahead of them.

"Game over, then?" he asked, shouting loudly at Snape's retreating back. "Guess I win!"

Snape spun around, and winced at the smug look gracing Sirius' face. "Which one of us is leaving with the most money, Black? Which one of us is even leaving, actually?"

Sirius, finally fed up with Snape's constant reminders that he is stuck in his pit stain of a family house, launched across the table, disregarding magic or wands for raw fists.

Fred and George watched Sirius in silent admiration, while Remus and Mr. Weasley tried desperately to drag Sirius off of Snape. Sirius kicked a couple chairs out of his way, as his hands wrapped around Snape's slimy neck. "I'm leaving," Snape shouted hoarsely, over the sounds of Sirius screaming and more chairs being flung.

Remus managed to grip Sirius around the waist and yank him back. Snape immediately stormed out of the room.

* * *

Ginny braced herself as the dining room door started to swing open. She caught a glimpse of black robes, and black hair, before she flung herself forward, wrapping her arms around a thick neck, and puckering her lips. 

Luckily, she kept her eyes open.

Ginny screamed and fell backwards. Snape stared down at her, his face pale and his hands twitching. "What were you trying to do?" he hissed.

"N, n, nothing," Ginny stammered, shaken to her core,

Snape closed his eyes for a moment, and shook his head. "Fifteen points from Gryffindor when we return to school," he muttered. "Abnormal freaks," he added, before he apparated out of the house completely.

Ginny sprang to her feet and shuffled quickly over to Hermione and Tonks. Hermione was holding a hand over her mouth, her chest perfectly still.

"Go ahead," Ginny hissed, sinking back into her chair. "Laugh."

Hermione and Tonks stumbled over to the couch, cackling insanely the whole way. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Hermione said, shaking her head, and looking sympathetic at Ginny. "But…you almost kissed Professor _Snape_?"

"I thought he was Sirius," Ginny shouted. She shuttered and swallowed the bile that rose in her throat.

Tonks buckled over with another wave of laughter. Sitting back up, she started wiping the tears that were hovering under her lower eyelid.

"Nymphadora," Ginny called icily; Tonks stopped laughing and raised an eyebrow at Ginny. "Your turn." Ginny sat back, thinking of something to make Tonks do.

"Hello, ladies. Having fun?" Mr. Weasley said, as he entered the sitting room. He smiled brightly at Tonks and made his way up the staircase.

A wide, crocked smile spread over Ginny's lips. "I dare you to kiss my Dad," she stated.

"Ginny, he's married," Hermione said.

"Oh, it's not like he would tell Mum," Ginny tried to reason. "That's my dare; take it or be burned."

Tonks sighed, and stood. "My near porcelain skin does not appreciate the threat, Ginevra," Tonks dead-panned. She bowed her head, and saluted as she made her way up the stairs.

Hermione and Ginny sat in giddy silence, waiting for Tonks to return. Or hear someone scream, which is exactly what happened.

Tonks bounded down the stairs, laughing hysterically. She tripped on the corner of the small table next to the couch, and fell face first into the cushions.

"That was Ron screaming," Ginny said, her voice all ready lit with giggles.

Tonks nodded; face still pressed into the couch.

"Did you _kiss_ him?" Hermione shouted, angrier than she ever intended to sound.

"Almost," Tonks said, sitting up, eyes puffy from all the happy tears that were streaming from her them. Ginny bounced onto the couch and motioned for Tonks to explain.

"I thought…I saw red hair walk into the bathroom. You know red hair attached to someone's head-"

"Hair attached to someone's head…how unusual," Hermione murmured, interrupting Tonks.

Tonks playfully pushed Hermione and continued. "So, I was positive that it was Arth…your father, Gin. So, I followed him into the bathroom…only it wasn't your Dad…it was R, R, Ro-on," Tonks voice started to falter with more laughter. "And I…I…didn't reali…realize it was him, until….my lips were dangling almost pressed against his."

"And he _screamed_?" Ginny managed before she fell over laughing. Hermione allowed her self to laugh too; after she heard the word 'almost', but never would she acknowledge her relief.

"Yes, he, um, _ahem_, well _I_ screamed when he threw someone's hair brush at me…after I, _ahem_, changedmyappearanceintoHermione."

"…what?" Hermione asked, her smile dropping instantly.

"I made myself look like you….it was a joke!"

Ginny held her hands over her mouth, and stared terrified at Hermione, who was glaring at Tonks.

"Game over?" Tonks asked.

"Most defiantly," Hermione confirmed, nodding.

Tonks stood up, and stretched her arms out, extending her bellowing yawn. "Wow, its 8:00! I'm going home." Tonks waved to the girls before she disappeared.

"It's not that late," Ginny commented. "What do you want to do, Hermione?"

Hermione stood up and ran her fingers through her hair. "Nothing," she shrugged. "I think I might go grab a book."

Ginny flopped onto her back as she watched Hermione shuffle over to and up the stairs. Sighing loudly, Ginny tried to come up with something worthy to do with her time. She closed her eyes, only for a second, to block out the light that was making her head pound.

Ginny reopened her eyes, and sat up. What she saw made her eyes widen and a smile blast across her face. Surrounding the couch where she slept were dozens upon dozens of bright red roses. They covered the entire floor, and blocked the doorways in and out of the room. There were so many, that in one corner, they were stacked up on top of each other, the petals of the very top flower brushing against the grey ceiling.

Ginny placed her feet in front of her, on the small patch of floor that wasn't covered, and instantly a clear path split through the bouquets. Ginny let her eyes travel the length of the path and her breath caught in her throat at what she found at the end.

Leaning against the wall, twirling one perfect rose in his fingers, was Sirius. He was wearing tight black robes that opened up slightly at the top, revealing a perfect chiseled chest. His long black hair was shiny and hung dangerously over his eyes. Sirius started to walk towards Ginny, and as he got closer Ginny noticed that his face seemed to be lifted of his years in prison. She never saw him look more handsome.

"Hello, Ginny," Sirius cooed in his husky, silky voice.

"Sirius," Ginny gasped. Sirius bent down and dragged his hand down Ginny's jaw line, allowing his thumb to flick over her bottom lip. Ginny's breath hitched and she felt her face burn where Sirius touched it. "Is this all for me?" she whispered, barely able to speak.

Sirius nodded and playfully twisted his fingers into Ginny's ginger hair. He brought his face closer to hers. "I wanted to show you how I felt, Ginny," he said, his lips brushing against hers as he spoke. The heat was almost too unbearable for Ginny to survive another second not kissing this man. Sirius stood up and motioned with his hand for Ginny to do the same. "Now, kiss me. Get up, off that couch; now."

Ginny didn't need to be told twice. She stood up, wrapping her arms around the man of her dreams, and drove her lips against his.

"_Ginny?_" Ron screamed, pushing his sister off of him. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?"

Ginny shook her head and looked around the room. No roses, no tight robed Sirius. Just Ron blushing with anger, and wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

"I told you to get up, off that couch…not try to make out with me! Ugh! Please tell me you were delirious?" Ron asked, stumbling backwards.

Ginny unable to speak, just simply nodded her head. "I, I, I was dreaming," she managed.

"I hate my life," Ron said. Still gagging, he ran out of the room.

Ginny leaned back against the couch and stared straight ahead. "That," she said out loud to anyone who happened to be listening; "was the most disgusting thing I have ever done in my entire life." Ginny swallowed and rubbed her eyes. _That is also the second time I should have ended up kissing Sirius!_

"Ginny?"

Ginny looked over towards the kitchen door. Hermione's head was sticking out of it, but by the blank look on her face, Ginny could tell that luckily Hermione didn't see anything.

"Are you awake?" Hermione asked. Ginny nodded, and stood up. "Come play cards with Remus, Sirius and me."

Ginny, eager to forget what just happened, bounded over to Hermione and followed her into the dining room.

Sirius and Remus sat at the end of the table. Remus attempted to shuffle a deck of playing cards, with Sirius trying to grab them from him. Hermione sank down into the chair next to Remus and nodded her head towards the chair next to Sirius. Ginny sat down, and tried to nonchalantly scoot her chair closer to Sirius.

"Hello, Ginny," Sirius said, in the same voice he had in her dream. Ginny felt the butterflies gauging for flight in her stomach.

"Do you know how to play poker, Ginny?" Remus asked her, starting to deal cards out to each of them.

"Nope," Ginny said, smiling wide and prodding the cards in front of her like they might be poisoned.

"Oh," Hermione said, looking up at Remus. "Should we teach her?" Remus and Hermione shared a weird smile, and Sirius dropped his head onto the table with a sigh.

"I'm sick of sitting here, Moony," he shouted. "Let's do something else?"

"What else is there to do?" Remus asked him, gathering all the playing cards back up.

"Well, I can think of a couple things," he said, smirking. Ginny kicked Hermione under the table, smiling with excitement.

Hermione rolled her eyes and pulled her chair back. "How about we play charades?" she asked. "It'll give us something to do, and give you exercise Sirius."

"Charades?" Sirius and Ginny asked together, sharing the same look of puzzlement.

"Do you know how to play charades…Remus?" Hermione asked, trying to casually call Remus by his first name, but she couldn't stop her voice from cracking.

"Yes, Hermione," Remus said, smiling sweetly at her. "You'll enjoy it Padfoot. You get to act obnoxious and insane, for a reason."

"Sounds good to me," Sirius said, rubbing his hands together.

"Ok, we need to split into teams," Hermione said. She started pointing her finger between her and Ginny to indicate that they be on a team together. Her brain immediately thought of the most efficient way to play the game; since Ginny didn't know how to play, Hermione would be on her team and Remus would do the same for Sirius.

"What if we just split the table in half," Sirius spoke up, dragging a long finger across an invisible line between him and Remus.

"Sounds good to me," Ginny squeaked, unable to contain her excitement.

"But neither of you know how to play," Hermione pointed out.

Remus cleared his throat loudly. "Odds are on us, then," he whispered to Hermione, eliciting a bright smile from her.

It took twenty minutes and two examples until Sirius and Ginny completely understood charades. Still unsure that they really got it, Hermione suggested that Remus and she go first. Sirius and Ginny giggled as they wrote something for Hermione to act out on a slip of parchment and handed it to her.

Hermione opened the piece of paper and read the words written lopsided across it. She sighed loudly and glared at the two, who were still giggling, perched on the ends of their chairs. "This doesn't fit into any category we choose," she said, referring to the three categories that Remus set up to for them to choose from; movies, music or literature.

"Forget your precious categories," Ginny exclaimed. "This is much more fun!" Sirius and Ginny nodded enthusiastically, and Remus smiled, motioning for Hermione to just continue. "You have thirty seconds," Ginny added.

Hermione sighed again and counted the words on the paper. She held up her hand, accompanied with a look of utter disgust.

"Four words," Remus said.

Hermione dropped to the ground and began crawling around in a circle.

Remus looked over at Sirius, who was bouncing with laughter. "Padfoot," he said.

Hermione nodded and stood up, brushing dust and dirt from her knees. She gave Remus another look of disgust and tapped her head. _Think about it_, she mentally screamed at him. _Don't make me act this out._

Remus, to even Hermione's surprise, knew exactly what Hermione meant by her finger tapping. "Padfoot is the sexiest…?" he announced, a little unsure of himself.

Sirius' and Ginny's face dropped in shock, and Hermione jumped up and down. "Yes! That's it," she shouted, showing Remus the parchment.

"How…?" Sirius stuttered.

"I know you," Remus said, laughing. "Now, what should we make _them_ act out?"

"We want a category," Sirius shouted.

Hermione shook her head, but her icy demeanor melted after one second of being looked at by Remus's soft eyes. "What do you want your category to be?" she asked, her mind suddenly fogged.

"Candy," Sirius squealed. Ginny nodded her head in agreement.

"_Muggle_ candy," Hermione added, smiling wickedly at Remus. Remus matched her smile and tore off a piece of parchment. He grabbed his quill and quickly wrote something down and showed it to Hermione. Hermione laughed at Remus's extensive knowledge of candy and folded the parchment up, handing it off to Sirius.

Sirius stared at the paper, at Remus and back to the paper.

"You have thirty seconds," Hermione said, holding her watch up.

Sirius panicked and held up two fingers.

"Two words," Ginny said.

Sirius frantically pointed at Hermione.

"Hermione," Ginny said. Sirius shook his head vigorously and pointed more fiercely at Hermione. "Oh, uh, she? Girl? Her?" Sirius jumped up and down, nodding and holding out his hand to tell Ginny to stop. "Her? Her," Ginny said, still confused.

Sirius once again pointed towards Hermione, who was now hiding her laughing face behind Remus's shoulder. "Her! No? Hermione? Girl?"

"Ten seconds, Padfoot," Remus said, grabbing Hermione's wrist to look at her watch.

Sirius squeaked and waved his hands towards Hermione.

"Hermione? Girl? She...She?"

Sirius sat down next to Ginny and nodded his head, trying to motion for Ginny to put the two together.

"Her and she?" Ginny said, confused. Sirius nodded. "Her-she…?"

"Five seconds," Hermione said.

"Her-she," Ginny said again. Sirius nodded and puckered his lips, pointing at them with his finger. "Her-she…lips?" Ginny mumbled. "Oh, those crazy wax Dracula lips!"

"No," Sirius hissed. He covered his mouth and furrowed his brow apologetically at Remus.

"Three seconds," Remus said laughing with Hermione.

Sirius pointed to his lips again and then at Ginny's mouth. "Her-she…lips…?" Ginny tried again.

"One second," Hermione squeaked.

Sirius, frantic with the thought of losing, grabbed Ginny's face and kissed her softly but with determination. Pulling back, Ginny was a mess of nerves, blush, desire, and shock.

Ginny swallowed hard, and Sirius sat back, suddenly realizing what he just did. "Her, Her, Hershey Kisses," Ginny announced, shifting her foggy eyes over to a very surprised looking Hermione.


	18. Your Age

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Hello! Thanks to everyone who read! And I am so glad that no one was too weired out by the Sirius and Ginny smooch, like I was scared of.

Here is my little individual thanks (feel free to skip): Extra GIANT thanks to **rikku-099**, **penguininpink** (glad you thought it was funny, and thanks for the character development comment), **haters r gonna rock dis world** (you broke your guitar? lol...hope you get it fixed up, and your fingers will get used to the strings...I used to play violin; not metal, but they still left marks :D ), **Mrs Chipmunk**, **Uturnwow**, **Solecito** (nice to hear that my story made you feel happier), **kihiij**, **BabyRuth**, **thumper**, **kittybro** (Sirius _is_ hard to resit! Too bad JK didn't see that!), **YamiClara**, **IamSiriusgrl**, **Porphyrophobic Grape** (I just have to tell you that I absolutly LOVE your name. I read your profile to find out what it meant...and it is now officially the funniest thing ever!), **thehpgang**, **Le Grimoire** and **Twylyght and Isis **for leaving comments/reviews!

Here's the actual story, lol! There's a little bit of a cliffy here, but don't worry too much about it. :D

* * *

It happened. Then it was over. Just that fast; but ten times more monumental than anything Hermione has witnessed over the past two weeks at Grimmauld Place. If it wasn't for all Hermione has seen during her small life, this kiss would probably rank number one in the shock department. However, Hermione has seen a lot, so this unfortunately pales in comparison. At the moment, though, it was all that mattered. Sirius' lips looked soft from her seat across the room. She could almost feel the wet movement against her own mouth. 

Sirius pulled back and then shock smacked him in the face. He could feel his own pupils morphing into round black holes, pushing out any trace of grey and only showing the one question that was running rampantly through his brain; _did I just kiss Ginny?_ He sat all the way back, his spine smacking against the wood back of the chair, but he didn't feel it. He couldn't feel anything; just beating heart. It was almost impossible for him to remember why he was even sitting in this room. _Were we playing a game? Wasn't there mention of chocolate? Should I look at Moony? Knew I shouldn't have._

Remus was laughing. Laughing so hard, that his stomach yelled at him to stop or be stopped, by means of every morsel of food ever put inside of it, ricocheting up and out of his mouth. Hermione was clinging to his arm, equally laughing at the sight of seeing a silent Sirius whimper and squirm in the looming doom of losing. Then it happened; and all Remus could do was drop his head to the side and stare. _This is going to be my fault. I can hear the inquisition._ It was him, after all, that picked Sirius' charade. _But, it was a charade. Not instructions._

Ginny swallowed hard. Not that there was anything close to salvia inside her mouth turned dry desert. She was so focused on the game that for once she wasn't even thinking: _Sirius, kiss me! Sirius, kiss me!_ Then Sirius kissed her, and she was frozen and redder than her hair. There was only one thing she could think of; and that was that she figured out the charade.

"Her, Her, Hershey Kisses," she announced. She looked over, across the room to Hermione and realized that what she really wanted to scream was: _Her, Her, Hermione? DID THAT REALLY HAPPEN?_

Ginny sat still, staring intently at a still and staring Hermione. Remus sat still, staring at a jumpy, clearly shaken, staring Sirius.

"Girls?"

The shrill voice of Mrs. Weasley split the silence and all four pairs of eyes darted over to her.

"It is ten o'clock! Time for bed; come on," she said, in her normal irritated tone. Remus breathed out heavily. Either Mrs. Weasley didn't care that her young daughter and friend were sitting in a room alone with two grown men, or she chose to ignore the fact that her young daughter and friend were sitting in a room alone with two grown men; none of them seemed to care, as long as she didn't ask questions.

"Good night," all four of them choked out in an uncomfortable unison. Hermione and Ginny quickly padded out of the room, through the kitchen, through the sitting room, up the two flights of stairs, not stopping until they were safely in their own bedroom.

"Can…" Ginny started, in a low rumble of a whisper. "You…believe...that…I just kissed Sirius Black?"

Hermione, despite her usual composed, adult like self, responded to Ginny by simply jumping up and down and squealing. Ginny bounced just as giddily over to Hermione and the two girls linked arms and shrieked nonsense into the dusty air.

"Well," Hermione panted, settling down on her bed, still feeling flustered by giggles. "Looks like you're the only one that actually completed her dare."

Ginny stood and bowed dramatically. "Did you expect less?" she asked, before falling backwards on her bed with a heavy sigh. "That was…" she started. Suddenly, she sprang up and locked eyes with Hermione. "That was…" she tried again. "I can't remember what it felt like," she said, her voice rushing with sudden nervousness.

"What?" Hermione asked. She changed into her pajamas and slid into her bed. "What can't you remember?"

"What Sirius' kiss felt like," Ginny shouted in a whisper. "I can't recall if his lips were soft, or big, or chapped, or wet, if he felt scruffy or smooth, how he smelled, how he tasted….I can't remember any of those crucial facts!"

"Ginny," Hermione said. "That's because it was hardly a kiss."

Ginny glared at Hermione like she just revealed that Ginny wasn't a real witch. "What is that supposed to mean?" she hissed.

"Ginny, it's not like he kissed you because he, well, because he _wanted_ to. He just didn't want to lose! And it only lasted a half a second anyways; not nearly enough time to record the taste, smell, and feel."

Ginny shrugged and wiggled underneath her blanket. "I guess, but…it was a rare moment! Monumental! How could it pass by without any description?"

"I don't know, Ginny," Hermione whined, her voice distorted by her pillow.

"Someday, when we're old and reminiscing about our younger years, you'll ask: Ginevra, remember when you kissed Sirius?" Hermione couldn't help but laugh at Ginny's impersonation of an elderly voice. "And I'd say, no…because I'd have a bad memory; but also because I was never able to describe it in the first place." Ginny let out one last hopeless sigh, before Hermione let out her own exasperated one.

"Ginny," Hermione said, picking her face up from her pillow. "Pretend it never happened…it won't be that hard since it hardly did; and go to sleep."

Ginny rolled her eyes, and turned around to face the wall.

* * *

Remus and Sirius tried to casually watch the two girls speed walk out of the room, hoping that everything appeared nothing less than normal. 

Mrs. Weasley's eyes were darting around, but they weren't narrowed with the onslaught of suspicious thoughts, which Remus took as a good sign.

Once the girls were gone, Remus sat back in his chair, letting out a breath he unknowingly was holding. He dragged his fingers through his graying hair, pulling the long bangs away from his face. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Mrs. Weasley staring intently at Sirius.

Letting his eyes move to Sirius, Remus wanted to laugh at what he saw.

Sirius sat half way off his chair, crossing and uncrossing his legs. His eyes, which appeared wide and glazed over, were trying almost too hard to avoid Mrs. Weasley's glare. Tiny glistening pin points of moisture clung onto the pale skin of his forehead.

"Sirius?" Mrs. Weasley asked, immediately adopting her 'Super Mum' voice.

Sirius twitched and looked helplessly to Remus, who was squeezing his lips shut and holding two fingers against them.

"Sirius, honey," Mrs. Weasley called again, moving closer to him at a rapid speed. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sirius growled. He pulled away from Mrs. Weasley's probing face.

"But, you're all sweaty dear. Are you going to be sick?"

Sirius shook his head, his black hair whipping across Mrs. Weasley's arm.

"Does your stomach hurt? Are you gassy? You look gassy, dear."

"What?" Sirius gasped, nearly toppling off his chair.

"Let me feel if your stomach is bloated," Mrs. Weasley cooed. Her left hand secured itself on Sirius's shoulder, while her right tried to desperately grab a hold of Sirius's squirming middle.

"Sirius, if you're gassy, you shouldn't hold it in! Now I know a spell…"

"I'M FINE," Sirius bellowed from his new location on the floor next to his chair. "I'm not sick, and I'm not _gassy_. All right?"

Mrs. Weasley huffed, and stuck her hands over her wide hips. "Well, that is the last time I attempt to help you out!" She turned around abruptly and left the room.

Sirius looked up at Remus, who was vibrating with suppressed laughter. "Don't you dare laugh," he hissed.

"Who me?" Remus asked. "Padfoot…"

"I'm fine," he whispered, pulling himself up so that the top half of his body leaned comfortably on the seat of his chair. "I didn't mean for that to happen."

"I know."

"I didn't _want_ for that to happen. I mean, it's all fun and games, but she's a young-"

"I know, Padfoot."

"I just hate to lose," Sirius continued. "You saw what almost happened during the poker match." Remus nodded, knowing that Sirius was referring to when George beat Sirius' flush with a royal flush, and Sirius turned into Padfoot barring his teeth, having to be held back by Charlie, Remus and Fred. "Moony?"

Remus raised his eyebrows in response.

"Did you do it on purpose?"

Now Remus's eyebrows were raised for a whole different reason. "I'm not sure I know what you're talking about," he lied.

Sirius started laughing. "It's all right, Moony. Really, it's kind of funny if you did it on purpose…like old times, you know? Not that it makes it right or anything." Sirius leaned his head on top of his propped up hand, shiny black hair cascading around his arm.

"Do you want to clue me in on what you're referring to?"

"The charade, Moony," Sirius shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "Hershey Kisses…come on. They were practically instructions."

Remus sighed, rolled his eyes, and rubbed his hands over his face at the same time. "Padfoot, I…I don't even know why you would think that I would give you a prompt to make out with Ginny Weasley!"

Sirius laughed again, and shrugged with faux suspicion.

"Sirius," Remus warned. "I honestly, swear to Merlin, that I did not have a hidden agenda. Those are my favorite muggle candy; of course it would be the first thing to pop into my head!"

"I know, Moony. I remembered actually." Sirius and Remus shared a soft smile. "I need a stiff drink," Sirius said, burying his face into the cleft of his elbow.

"No," Remus countered, standing up. "What you need is to go to bed; get some sleep."

"Ah, sleep," Sirius yawned, as Remus helped him to his feet. Sirius opened his arms wide to Remus. "Carry me, Moony?"

"You know what?" Remus said, pushing Sirius arms away. "If one was to add up all the things you have consciously done and said this entire day…I think you'd have a good chance at being classified as clinically insane."

The two found themselves half way to Sirius' room. "Insane…Mum would be proud," Sirius said, pointing down at the covered portrait of his mother. "Good thing I have no intention on pleasing her then."

Remus laughed, as they stopped in front of Sirius' bed chamber. "Good night, Pad-"

A large crack interrupted Remus, and a visibly exhausted Tonks appeared in the hallway. "Oh," she whispered, looking around. "I meant to apparate into the kitchen."

"-foot. Tonks," Remus finished, acknowledging Tonks presence.

"Whatever you've heard isn't true," Sirius shouted suddenly. "I'm a sore loser, you know? I almost stabbed your father that one time when he beat me at knife throwing!"

"Why were you playing knife throwing?" Remus asked.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Tonks asked, even more confused than Remus.

"Good night," Sirius squeaked, quickly disappearing into his bedroom.

Tonks stared at the closed door, puzzlement dancing across her face.

"He, um," Remus started all ready laughing at the absurdity of what he was about to say. "He kissed Ginny."

Tonks turned her eyes to Remus. Remus jumped back slightly as Tonks started buckling over with laughter. "That sly little thing," Tonks exclaimed. "She actually completed her dare? Wow."

Remus furrowed his eyebrows.

"I hope they don't expect me to go through with mine." Tonks inwardly shuddered, and Remus found himself defiantly beyond confused.

"We were playing charades," Remus said, just trying to steer the conversation back to a plane that he was on. "And he kissed her."

Tonks surveyed Remus, dropping her head to the side. "Are you jealous…or something?"

"No," Remus said, his voice casual. "I'm used to seeing Sirius be kissed, and me be given a hand shake." Remus suddenly couldn't recall what made him say such a revealing piece of information to the one person that shouldn't be given any details about his personal life.

As Remus was thinking over what he said, Tonks took the brilliant opportunity to grab hold of his face, and pull herself professionally up on her toes, pressing their lips together.

Remus's lips felt slightly chapped, but she still tried to eagerly pry them open with the casual flicks from her tongue.

Remus took enough time to register the softness of Tonks' kiss, given that he rarely had moments like this, before he used all his strength to push the clinging girl away.

"Listen, Tonks," Remus started, licking his lips, and avoiding the look of want clearly visible in Tonks' eyes. "You're very sweet, and pretty, but…I think Charlie is more your age."

Tonks' mouth dropped open, but she wasn't given a chance to say anything. Remus had turned around and made his way further down the hall to his room.

Tonks twisted her fingers into her hair, which tonight was a mess of mahogany curls, and stormed down the stairs.

* * *

Ginny flipped around onto her opposite side for the seventeenth time in row. She couldn't get comfortable; she couldn't sleep. She always thought that sleep would come easy after one has just kissed their currant crush, but this was different. _How could I have dreams of me kissing Sirius, if I can't remember what it felt like to kiss Sirius?_ Ginny asked herself, silently mouthing the words into the darkness of her room._ Stupid shock making me blank out! _Ginny growled, not attempting to lower her pitch. 

She sat up, and kicked the blankets off her legs. "Something needs to be done about that," she whispered; "or I'm going to never go to sleep, ever, for the rest of eternity."

Ginny, being as dramatic as possible, got a sudden attack from a brilliant idea, and was up and off her bed in seconds. She slipped her feet into the fluffy white slippers at the foot of her bed, and took long strides out of the room, as silently as she could manage.

What she didn't know was that all of her tossing, and thought to be silent hissing was keeping up her, now very annoyed, roommate. Hermione watched the outline of Ginny saunter out of the room. Knowing exactly where Ginny was going, Hermione came to one fast conclusion; she needed to follow her.

Hermione stepped in place silently behind the sneaking Ginny, who, as predicted, was heading straight for Sirius' room. Hermione wanted to stop her; but she knew that Ginny had no clue she was behind her, and therefore she would be scared white at the sudden name call or arm grab. Thinking fast, Hermione thought that if she was going to scare Ginny, she might as well do it on purpose.

"HIPPOGRIFF," Hermione shouted.

Ginny screamed. She started groping her side, realizing that her wand was lying under her bed ten thousand million feet away. Spinning around, Ginny prepared her mind for the worst, and she got it.

"Hermione Granger!" Ginny held her hand over her heart, panting with the aftermath of being terrified. "What the bloody hell? Did you want to shock me to death?"

Hermione stopped laughing and started shaking her head at Ginny. "Forget your wand, young Miss Weasley," she said, badly copying the voice of Mad Eye Moody.

Ginny rolled her eyes, and turned back around, resuming her trek to Sirius' room.

"Why are you going to Sirius' room?" Hermione asked, catching up with Ginny.

Ginny pursed her lips together, looking away from Hermione.

"I'm not going to leave not knowing what you're doing," Hermione pointed out.

"I'm going to kiss him, again," Ginny sighed in frustration.

"Ginny!" Hermione grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. "You can't do that! It's wrong on so many levels!"

"He'll be sleeping...he'll never know, and I'll be able to say what his lips feel like…it's a win, win!"

Hermione glared at Ginny, folding her arms across her chest. "What if he wakes up?" she challenged.

"I'll convince him that this was all a dream," Ginny said, as she started walking again.

They got to Sirius' room, and Ginny began to turn the door handle. "I'm waiting out here," Hermione warned. "I expect you to be out here in no less than five minutes."

"Yes, mum," Ginny hissed, stepping into the blackness of Sirius' bedroom.

Ginny peered into the darkness, searching for any sign of danger. Seeing nothing, she made her way carefully and quietly over to Sirius' bed.

Sirius was lying on his back. His long black hair was spread out around him like a crown, and his gray t-shirt stretched tightly over his broad shoulders, revealing every bone that stuck out under his thin muscles. The light from the one candle on his side table flickered over his face, highlighting his deep cheekbones and perfectly chiseled jaw line.

Ginny held her breath, and leaned over closer to him. Her lips were mere inches from his. She shut her eyes, missing the opening of his.

"Ginny," Sirius said, in a casual tone.

Ginny screamed for the second time this hour and fell off the side of Sirius' bed. She sprang up and started waving her fingers in front of Sirius' face, which was holding laughter back with every muscle. "_Ooo_…this is a crazy dream. You're sleeping. _Ooo!_ Go back to sleep, and never speak of this dream to anyone!"

Sirius closed his eyes and gripped his blanket. He really didn't want to laugh and humiliate the poor girl.

Ginny, thinking that Sirius had fallen for her trick, decided to take it to the next level. "This is a dream. A lovely dream involving the woman of your, um, dreams. Ginny Weasley!"

"Ginny," Sirius said, sitting up. He held his hand up for her to stop. Ginny's arms fell to her side, and her face burned crimson.

"You're not sleeping," she accused.

"You've noticed," Sirius said, trying to joke. His laughter died fast, and he folded his hands onto his lap. "Listen, Ginny," he started, adopting a voice that Remus would have most likely used in a situation like this. "I know I'm good looking…but…I think that maybe Harry is more your age."

Ginny's mouth fell open.

"I'm sorry; good night." Sirius smiled, motioned for Ginny to leave, and fell back against his pillow.

Ginny stormed out of the room, streaking past Hermione.

"Why did you scream?" she asked, running after Ginny.

"Bugger off," Ginny replied, anger dripping from every word, though not intended to be directed at Hermione.

* * *

Hermione woke up abruptly. Her curly hair was tangled and sticking up even more wild than usual, and her eyes, blood shot and dry, stung in the corners. She turned her head and fumbled in the dark for the wrist watch that she placed on her night stand. 

She wanted to cry when she read the time; 3:49 a.m. She looked at her watch before she fell asleep. The time then was 3:41.

_Not even ten minutes_, Hermione screamed in her head. _I haven't even been asleep for ten minutes!_

Ever since Hermione returned to her bedroom, after she followed Ginny to Sirius' room, Hermione has found herself tossing and turning and wanting to burst into tears. She couldn't sleep; and she didn't want to admit why.

The fact was, every time she closed her eyes, and her mind feel deeper into its subconscious, Hermione would relive her kiss with Ron.

She closed her eyes, and sunk herself farther down into her bed. It took a while before Hermione found herself in dream land.

A pleasing feeling, lips pressed against lips, a flash of red hair, the smell of boy and Hermione was awake once again, panting. This situation repeated over and over, until finally Hermione's watch told her it was 9:45 a.m.

Ginny was all ready up. She got dressed in a hurry, muttering under her breath, and appearing purely disgruntled with the world. Hermione waited for Ginny to stomp down stairs, before she got up and dressed too; but she had purpose in her movements.

Instead of going down stairs, Hermione made her way, head held high, to Ron's room across the hall.

Hermione attempted knocking, but the door nudged open with the force of her fist. She peeked her head in, and saw Ron stretched half way off his bed, snoring lightly.

"Ron?" Hermione said, moving into the room. Ron twitched slightly, but continued sleeping. "Ron," Hermione tried again. She leaned over him, and poked him gently in the chest.

"Mum," Ron whined, shooing Hermione's finger away.

"Ron," Hermione sighed, slightly annoyed.

One of Ron's eyes popped open and soon the other followed. "Hermione," he gasped, pulling his blanket up to his chin.

"Oh, will you stop," Hermione shouted, sitting on the side of his bed. "You're wearing pajamas."

Ron blushed, and lowered the blanket. "What are you doing here, anyway?" he asked.

"I just came," Hermione started. "I just came to tell you that I didn't mean to kiss you. It was an accident."

"Oh?" Ron said, quietly.

"Yes. Not that it was bad or anything…or that it was good, I mean, it was just…it was hardly anything, you know?"

Ron squinted at her, and nodded slowly.

"And I like you," Hermione said. Ron's eyes shot open, his eyebrows traveling half way up his forehead. "No! I mean I like you like a friend…just a friend. I mean you're nice and everything, but…you, um…" Hermione closed her mouth tightly; she suddenly realized that she had no idea what she was going on about.

"Hermione," Ron said, in a gentle calming voice that completely scared Hermione. He sat up in his bed, and placed his hand on her shoulder. "You're a lovely girl but…I think perhaps, Remus is more your age."

"What?" Hermione said. She tried to laugh, but she couldn't get anything but air to come out.

"Remus is more your age…given the fact that you're mentally around thirty-nine." Ron grinned.

If it wasn't for self control, Ron would have had a beaming red hand print across his face, but instead of resulting to animalistic behavior, Hermione stood up and stormed out of the room. "So much for trying to talk to him," Hermione said to herself, as she stomped her way down to the kitchen. "Merlin, he can be such a stupid boy sometimes!"

"All boys are stupid."

Hermione stopped in her tracks, and glared down at Tonks who was sitting with Ginny at the kitchen table. Hermione hadn't even realized that she was in the kitchen all ready. She pulled out the chair closest to her and flopped down, nodding hellos to Ginny and Tonks, and quickly deciding that she wasn't going to let them know who she was calling stupid; even though they had an idea.

"It's July 31st." Ginny said her voice trying it's hardest to seem cheery.

"Harry's birthday," Hermione finished, and the two shared a quick toothy smile.

"He's a boy, Ginny. A boy like all the rest."

"Is she drunk?" Hermione asked, pointing at Tonks. "It's only a quarter to ten!"

"No," Ginny said. "She just hates men today."

Tonks nodded her head, which today wore a stringy mop of jet black hair, curling softly around her shoulders. Her eyes were almost the same color, and she seemed to have a sudden pinch to her nose.

"Is that you're real hair, Tonks?"

"Is that an insult?" Tonks asked in return. Hermione didn't say another word, but her eyes shifted to Ginny for a moment, who was nodding at her with a big smile on her face.

"Boys stink!" Tonks shouted, raising her glass of orange juice into the air.

"I agree," Hermione said, grabbing Ginny's glass and raising it to meet Tonks'.

Tonks slammed her glass down on to the table, and turned to glare directly at Hermione. "Now, wait a minute," she yelled. "You're only fourteen! If I was your age…when I was your age I was too obsessed with boys to hate them!" Tonks sat back; "It'd be fun to be your age again."

"Why?" Ginny asked. "I hate being thirteen!" Ginny's eyes fell to the table and she flicked a crumb of food off the side with an intense force.

"I hate being thirty-nine," Hermione said, not really meaning to say that out loud. She looked up with realization to see Tonks and Ginny cocking an eyebrow at her. "Mentally…never mind," she mumbled.

The joyful humming of Mrs. Weasley stopped Hermione from having to explain herself further. "Good morning, dears," Mrs. Weasley bellowed sweetly.

"Molly! Make me some pancakes, will you?"

"Tonks you're old enough to make your own pancakes."

"See, even _she_ thinks I'm old!" Tonks dropped her head forward, hitting it hard against the table.

"Mum," Ginny called. "I would like some pancakes too."

Mrs. Weasley stared at Ginny. "Fine," she sighed. "I've got to do everything for every-"

"You know what?" Tonks asked, springing back to life. "There are probably spells or potions that we can use to change our ages!"

"Tonks," Hermione scolded, casting a look of worry at Ginny. "That is very dangerous! You're an Auror…you should know when not to suggest dangerous things to minors!"

"Who you calling a minor?" Ginny huffed. She sat up straighter in her chair, trying to make her self appear taller.

Tonks looked from Ginny to Hermione, and then leaned into the table, motioning them to follow. "I have an idea…to get Remus, er, _ahem_, to get back at the boys."

"Honestly, they didn't _do_ anything," Hermione whispered.

"Shh," Ginny said, turning her glinting eyes back to Tonks.

"We can…" Tonks whispered her plans to the two listening faces. When she was done, the three pulled away; Tonks grinning smugly, and Ginny smiling with anticipation.

"You're a horrible role model," Hermione dead panned.

"I know," Tonks said, taking a swig of orange juice.


	19. The Winner

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: Thank you VERY much to everyone who left a comment/review! Can't thank you enough. Thanks to everyone who just read too!

One note about the story: I took the year that is mentioned in one part (how vague does that sound?) from the timeline of Remus's life on the HP Lexicon.

* * *

"Three enormous stacks of pancakes," Mrs. Weasley called, as she levitated the three plates over to the kitchen table, where Ginny, Hermione and Tonks all sat. "One, two and three…with extra syrup for my _baby girl_," she added, lovingly pinching Ginny's cheek. 

"Mum," Ginny moaned, swatting her away.

"Thank you," Hermione spoke up over the sounds of food being cut, scraped and loudly chewed, that was coming from the seat next to her. "Tonks, breathing…it's a necessity."

Tonks shoved another forkful of dripping pancakes into her mouth, smiling smugly at Hermione. "Molly?" Tonks asked, after she swallowed. "Aren't you having any?"

"Oh, no, dear," Mrs. Weasley answered, picking up her bowl of granola bits and cut strawberries. "Trying to watch the weight," she added, tapping her round stomach.

Ginny stopped her fork half way to her mouth, as soon as Mrs. Weasley finished speaking, and left the room. She lowered it back down to her plate and looked between Hermione and Tonks. "Hey," she shouted, to draw their attention away from their own breakfasts. Tonks and Hermione looked up at her, raising their eyebrows in silent questions. "Shouldn't _we_ be watching the weight?" Ginny asked.

"Why should we?" Hermione asked. She understood the chemical balances that occur in the body of a girl her age. Metabolism was in its best form, and Hermione knew that there was no healthy reason to diet.

"Yeah," Tonks stepped in. "It's not like it matters if we get fat," she added, twisting Hermione's question into something completely different. "I want to get fat actually," Tonks continued, pouring more syrup onto her pancakes. "_That'll_ make men notice me more."

Ginny sniggered, patting her own flat abdomen, as if she was bidding it farewell.

"Tonks," Hermione sighed in exasperation. She put her fork down and pointed at Tonks' tiny, so thin it appeared to be caving in on itself, belly. "First of all, it will take more than one stack of pancakes to make _you_ fat. And two, you're a Metamorphmagus! You can make your stomach protrude at your own will!"

Tonks pushed her chair back so that she was sitting a foot away from the table. She screwed her face up, and a second later her stomach shifted from flat to bulbous.

"You just look pregnant," Ginny commented, giggling slightly.

Tonks laughed, and nodded. Her stomach switched back to its normal appearance. "Plus," she started, pulling her chair back to the table. "It didn't feel right; like instead of being filled with food particles, I was just filled with air."

Ginny made a sound of curiosity, while Hermione rolled her eyes and returned to her breakfast.

They ate in silence for a minute; too busy savoring the sweet, fluffy morsels to care about chit chat or plans any more.

The kitchen door suddenly swung open with vigor, demanding their attention. All three heads perked up and turned to look at who walked in. Ron strode over to them, his head raised high. He pulled out the chair next to Hermione and sat himself down. His eyes didn't swim around the room, or check out what everyone else was eating, or even look to make sure their was nothing on his chair before he sat down; _what was that squelch sound_, he thinks in the back of his head. His eyes were held fixedly on Hermione.

She refused to acknowledge him.

Ginny and Tonks bit their lips to shut out the grins that threatened to come out and tease Hermione.

"Ronald," Mrs. Weasley said, as she came into the kitchen from the dining room. "Are you hungry? Would you want some pancakes, too?"

Ron didn't blink or shift his ogling eyes. A rushed hand wave was all Mrs. Weasley got out of her son, which prompt her to huff in annoyance and exit the room.

Hermione could feel her cheek burning. Not just the sensation of burning; she was almost positive her face was on fire. Her fingers twitched into a ball. She was ready. One outburst of laughter from Tonks, who was doing a bad job of acting her age, and Hermione, would be ready to attack.

Ron finally took in a large breath and cleared his throat. "Hermione?" he asked, his voice almost begging for her attention. Hermione turned her head; her eyes cold, but her face giving away how she really felt. "Listen." Ron started, shifting in his chair. "I'm sorry I called you mentally old…or whatever I said. But, I'm sorry. You're not old…I mean mentally you might be, but…oh, sorry. What I'm trying to say is that, you're not old, you're just serious. I mean, you're not _Sirius_…bloody hell; why would you even think that's what I meant?" Ron started laughing nervously, twisting his fingers together in his lap. "I guess I'm just trying to tell you that I'm sorry for…for being a prat."

Ron fell silent. He tried to smile normally, but the blushing of his cheeks, the shaking of his hands, and the sweating of his forehead made him feel nothing less than awkwardly placed.

"I forgive you-"

"The plan!" Tonks shout stopped Hermione's voice. "Remember the plan?"

Hermione frowned. She quickly thought about not going along with Tonks' plan, but then something, some small, usually forgotten voice, hidden deep inside her brain, told her to stick to the plan.

"Ronald," Hermione started over, nodding her head at Ron and then turning to re-face her plate. "Thank you for your apology." She sat up straight in her chair and forked a piece of pancake. "I'll consider it."

"What?" Ron asked. He stood up, aggravation now evident through his entire face. "Consider it? You just said that you forgave me?"

Hermione shrugged and continued to eat.

Ron stared at the top of Hermione's head for one second longer, before he threw his hands into the air and stormed off, back to his room.

Once the door closed, Hermione sighed loudly and covered her face with her hands. "That was horrible of me," she mumbled through her fingers. "I feel terrible. I should apologize."

"No," Ginny shouted. "Don't feel bad!" Ginny shifted into the chair next to her, so that she was sitting across from Hermione and not Tonks. "If you follow through with Tonks plans, then Ron will forgive you and the two of you can finally be together."

To Hermione's disgust, there was not a hint of sarcasm in Ginny's voice. "I don't like Ron," she said.

Ginny looked at Tonks, and the two burst into crazed laughter. "Ok," Tonks said, slightly out of breath. "Ginny's right, Hermione; my plan is genius!" Tonks elongated her spiky violet hair, just so she could flick it off her shoulder with emphasis. "All we have to do is," Tonks stopped to bring her hair back to its normal shortness. "Act aloof, but _appear_ desirable."

Hermione nodded; she was stuck in this house, stuck with these two girls as friends, stuck with this plan, and there was nothing better to do than go along with it.

Ginny sprang up from her seat and rubbed her hands together. "You know what we need?" she asked, leering above Tonks and Hermione.

"I don't want to know," Hermione mumbled. She folded her used napkin up into a neat triangle and set it on top of her plate.

"Makeovers," Tonks shouted, getting to her feet.

Ginny nodded dangerously. Tonks grabbed Hermione's arm, forcing her to get up and follow Ginny out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

"Once again, Tonks," Hermione spoke as the three ascended the stairs. "You're a Metamorphmagus. You give yourself a makeover all the time. You just did it two minutes ago at the table. This isn't a new fact!"

Inside Ginny's and Hermione's room, Tonks closed the door. "Hermione," she whined. "Have some fun! Everyone else is."

Hermione's mouth dropped in shock.

"Let's all shake, a secret girl's club hand shake," Tonks continued, approaching Ginny, who was bouncing with glee, and Hermione, who was trying to remember where she left her book; _I think it's under my pillow, stuffed under the pillowcase, actually_.

Ginny took Tonks' outstretched hand, and forced Hermione to do the same. Hermione didn't care anymore, so she grabbed Tonks' other hand. "This handshake means that we will not point out obvious facts to other members nor will we deter them from pursing a new hair style or look."

After they shook hands, Hermione stumbled dizzily over to her bed, and collapsed on top of it.

"Who wants to go first?" Ginny said, settling herself on the edge of her bed.

"I will," Tonks offered, moving to sit next to Ginny; "since I'll be the easiest. I'm a Metamorphmagus, you know? Or so I'm told." Hermione sent Tonks a grimace worthy of her level of annoyance.

"Ok," Tonks continued, ignoring Hermione. "What kind of look would Remus lik- I mean any guy, really. What would any guy like?"

"Tonks," Hermione blurted out, springing to her feet. "Remus doesn't fancy you! Not like that. And no matter how you change your hair, his feelings won't change, because Remus isn't that kind of man. He doesn't like women based solely on what color their hair is, or how much makeup they wear. Remus likes women for who they are, the kind of conversations they can carry…things they don't teach you in Auror training. And that's what makes Remus so much better than anyone else."

Tonks and Ginny stayed still, eyes widened and held on Hermione. "Her-my-oh-nee," Tonks started, speaking slow like she just learned how to use her voice. "Do I need to remind you about the handshake?" She held up her hand.

Hermione sank down to her bed with confusion. She honestly expected a new war to break out right inside the four walls of this room.

"You know what, Hermione?" Ginny spoke up. "You still have that time turner?" Hermione shook her head. "Maybe you should get it back. How many turns to bring you back to Hogwarts circa 1975?"

Hermione glared at Ginny, and slid back across her bed, so that her back was straight against the wall.

"Ginny, how about we work on your makeover," Tonks suggested. At that, both Ginny and Tonks broke into instant giggles. Tonks pulled Ginny's hair up, letting it fall back down, as she sat back, considering her possibilities.

Ginny clawed through Tonks makeup bag, picking out eye shadows and lip glosses.

Hermione prodded her hand underneath the small pile of pillows on her bed. Pawing around blindly, she squealed triumphantly when her fingers brushed against hard binding. She pulled the book over to herself, flipping it open it the page she last read.

Just as Tonks began combing through Ginny's hair, their door squeaked open and a dark head peaked inside.

"Sirius," Tonks screamed. "Don't you knock?"

"What's going on in here?" Sirius questioned, ignoring Tonks.

Ginny shifted uncomfortably, trying to hide her reddening face from Sirius. The last time he saw her, she was trying to make out with him; mortification began to settle in the pit of her stomach.

"We're having makeovers," Tonks said, to Sirius.

Sirius' face lit up, and be began to twirl a tendril of his silky, black hair around his finger. "I want a makeover," he whined, batting his eyelashes at his easiest target; Ginny.

Ginny immediately forgot that she was embarrassed to be in Sirius' presence, and began to nod her head enthusiastically.

"Ginny," Tonks hissed. She grabbed the top of Ginny's head to stop her from moving. "Sirius? Isn't getting a makeover, a little girly?"

Sirius shrugged. "I want a cool, slick new hair style; like-"

"Go find Remus then," Tonks butted in. She got off of Ginny's bed and began pushing her older, and taller, cousin out of the room.

"Remus? He has _no_ style. I-" Tonks slammed the door on Sirius' voice and face.

Ginny looked at Hermione, and pretended to wipe her brow. Hermione understood what Ginny meant; she could see the tension on Ginny's face the moment Sirius stepped into the room.

"Hermione," Tonks cried, inching towards Hermione. She tapped her hairbrush on her palm, like she had transfigured her wand into it. "I've been dying to brush this out."

Tonks lunged at Hermione, who screamed at the highest pitch she could manage, and sprang off her bed.

"Oh, come on, Hermione," Ginny laughed.

"What's wrong with my hair?" Hermione asked, jumping behind Ginny to dodge Tonks.

"Everything," Ginny deadpanned, obviously kidding. Ginny turned around to face Hermione. Tonks stopped her chase, to laugh at Ginny's comment. "Hmm," Ginny began, eyeing Hermione's hair. "I wonder what kind of look Ron would prefer."

Hermione sighed, complete with an insulted look. She reached and grabbed Ginny's shoulders. "I…do…not…fancy…Ronald," she said, shaking Ginny roughly with every word.

"Yeah? And I'm George."

Hermione, Ginny, and Tonks turned their attention to the door. Fred, who just spoke, was standing there still pointing to George at his side.

"How can anyone really tell?" Tonks prompted.

"Do you want to know what kind of girl Ron would want, or not?" George said, picking up where his brother left off.

"No," Hermione blurted out; a little too fast.

"Our baby brother…he likes girls that have hair-"

"Brown hair."

"That's kind of bushy."

"With brown eyes."

"And she should be smart-"

"-because Merlin knows he isn't."

"OUT," Hermione bellowed. She launched herself at Fred and George, chasing them out of the room.

Hermione slammed the bedroom door shut, and spun back around to face the room. She shrieked when she found Tonks standing an inch from her face, armed and ready with her hairbrush.

Clutching her hair, Hermione bolted away from Tonks, shrieking louder than ever.

"Just sit still," Tonks screamed, laughing hysterically. She tripped seven times, as she chased Hermione around the room.

On her fourth sweep past the door, Tonks suddenly found her hand missing something important. She halted in her tracks, and whipped around. Standing by the now open door, holding the hairbrush securely in his hand, was Remus.

Hermione swooned; then remembered that normal, smart people didn't swoon. She shook her head, and tried her hardest not to look at Remus.

"Lupin," Tonks scolded. "You're ruining makeover time." Ginny flipped off the bed where she had been sitting, holding up her fresh manicured hands, hyperventilating with laughter.

"Molly has requested that Hermione and Ginny come help her and the boys clean the sitting room," Remus instructed, eyeing Ginny with a worried look.

"Oh, but my nails," Ginny whined, displaying her glittering pink finger nails.

"Tonks?" Remus continued. "Don't you have _real_ work to do?"

Tonks shrugged, smirking up at Remus. "Probably," she said.

"Oh, but its Harry's birthday," Hermione shouted, as she walked over to help Ginny up off the floor. "Isn't it a national holiday?" Hermione made a show of elbowing Ginny in the side. Ginny's freshly blushed cheeks turned even darker.

Remus handed Tonks her hairbrush back. Furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, he left the room.

"I think Professor Lupin needs a makeover," Ginny said, sitting back down and blowing at her nails.

"No, he doesn't," Hermione shouted.

"Remus is handsome," Tonks added.

"I mean, he's no Sirius Black, but…" Hermione's voice trailed off. Tonks snapped her fingers in front of Hermione's face.

"Not you too," she mumbled. Hermione tilted her head to the side, pondering her answer. "Never mind," Tonks continued; "back to the makeovers."

* * *

Hermione and Ginny descended the stairs of number 12 Grimmauld Place with apprehension. They quickly made their silent way into the sitting room, where Mrs. Weasley's scolding voice could all ready be heard. 

"And if I hear one more complaint, I'll…Ginny! Hermione! Are you wearing makeup?"

Ginny nodded smugly, while Hermione tried to push her hair over her face. She allowed Tonks to put makeup on her, but hair straightening was where she drew the line.

"Why?" Mrs. Weasley shrieked, grabbing Ginny's face.

"They want to look pretty, mum," Fred supplied. George put his head on his brother's shoulder, batting his eyelashes, and pouting his lips.

"Stop it you two, back to work!" Mrs. Weasley turned her attention back to Ginny. "You look very…grown up," she said.

Ginny looked at Hermione, hardly able to suppress her glee. "Thanks mum," she squeaked.

"I would like you girls to clean those windows. Soap and water should do it." Mrs. Weasley indicated the two buckets that were sitting underneath the second row of streaked windows in the sitting room.

Hermione grabbed Ginny, before she could complain about getting her nails dirty, and dragged her over to the window.

As they passed the first set of windows, Hermione couldn't help but make eye contact with Ron; he was perched up on a ladder, mouth hanging open, and eyes following Hermione's every step.

"Ron," Hermione muttered, bowing her head at Ron to acknowledge his presence. Then she stopped walking and turned back to him. "Did you send our packages out to Harry? I forgot to ask you."

"Oh, yes," Ron said, jumping off his ladder. He tried to turn his near wipe out into a cool dismount, but his feet became tangled around themselves. He did manage to lean somewhat casually against the wall. "Pig should be on his way back soon, I reckon. Sorry, I didn't let you know. I probably meant to tell you this morning, but, well…um, _ahem_, nice, um, hair."

"Thanks," Hermione mumbled. She held in her want to laugh; her hair was the only thing not fixed differently. Hermione also chose to completely ignore that Ron complemented her and that she thought it was cute.

Ginny pulled Hermione away from Ron and over to the windows they were told to clean. "Act aloof," she whispered to Hermione. "Then he'll admit that he likes you."

"I don't _want_ him to," Hermione whispered back.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Anyways, this isn't fun! I don't get to clean and attract men. I just get to clean; except replace _get to_ with _forced to_." Ginny gingerly grabbed onto the bubbly, soapy sponge and held it up between her thumb and pointer finger.

"Help clean, _she orders_. It's your job, _she says_. I'dliketoshowherwhatIreallythinkofherjobs." Sirius stopped his grumbling, and looked up at Ginny and Hermione, who were frozen in front of their window.

"Wow, ladies," Sirius started, dropping his low angry tones, for his normal low smooth ones. "You look absolutely beautiful."

"Thanks, Sirius," Hermione giggled; for the first time she didn't feel stupid for acting girly.

Ginny nodded casually and went back to her work.

Sirius frowned at the back of Ginny's head. "So, Miss Weasley, your mother's making you clean too; and with freshly painted nails? The nerve!"

Hermione laughed under her breath, continuing to scrub her section of the window. Ginny didn't laugh, or blink, or pause in her cleaning.

Sirius frowned again. He looked at Ron for help; but he seemed too busy trying not to stare at Hermione. Then Sirius thought that perhaps Ginny was mad at him for what he said last night.

"Ginny?" Sirius asked, approaching her. "Are you mad?"

"No," Ginny simply said. She still didn't look at Sirius.

"Are you sure?"

Ginny nodded.

"Because if you are…I'm sorry."

Ginny shrugged, and moved over to the next window pane.

"Do you want to go get something to eat later?" Sirius blurted out.

Hermione and Ginny both dropped their sponges. "Sirius," Hermione shouted. She threw her hand, still covered with soap, over Ginny's mouth. "You can't leave the house!"

"Oh, yeah," Sirius muttered. "Well, then, Ginny do you want to go get something to eat from the kitchen?"

"Are you insane?" Hermione shouted, her hand gripping over Ginny's struggling mouth.

"I…don't…know," Sirius whispered. He stared at Ginny, before turning around quickly. He shuffled over to a chair by the door, shot one more curious look at Ginny, before he sank into the seat.

Hermione turned Ginny around, and let go of her mouth. She pointed her finger at Ginny, as a warning not to go running over to Sirius. Ginny bit her bottom lip, her eyes watering with suppressed joy.

"I think I owe you 500 _pretend_ Galleons," Hermione said. Ginny's face burst into a surprised smile.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well," Hermione started, her eyes falling over to Sirius for a moment. "You obviously won our bet."

Ginny smiled even wider and chanced a glance at Sirius who was scratching his head, and muttering to himself. "So, the best girl _did_ win," she said.

"Something weird is going on!" Remus's voice entered the room seconds before he did. Sirius sprang up to meet him, and everyone's head turned towards the noise.

"What happened Remus?" Sirius asked.

"I kissed Tonks," Remus choked out.

"You what?"

"I kissed Tonks. I don't know why. She was standing there, in the kitchen, acting aloof to everything I was saying. Then I complemented her and she still ignored me…so I kissed her." Remus sank down into the chair that Sirius was previously sitting in. "I think she put a spell on me," he added, in a strangled voice.

"We need to go find her," Ginny whispered to Hermione. "But, not to kill her," Ginny added, looking at Hermione's face which was fixed with a look of utter loathing.

Hermione shook her head. "I'm a sensible young woman," Hermione hissed, more to remind herself than Ginny. The two girls quickly fled the room, Hermione having to force Ginny to pass Sirius without saying anything.

"Something is going on," Sirius commented, as he watched Hermione and Ginny flee the sitting room.

"There's something in the air," Ron spoke up. "Everyone….everyone _female_, is acting all crazed or something."

"We can tell you what's going on," George teased, dropping his sponge carelessly back into its bucket.

"Hermione, Ginny and Tonks are trying to lure you guys into their trap-"

"So that you'll all become hypnotized and do their bidding."

"We think," Fred added, for good measure.

"Well," Sirius shouted. "Two can play this game."

"I think I'm going to go brush my teeth," Remus said. "For the next five hours."


	20. Something To Do

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.**

A/N: So...this is the last chapter. There's a longer author's note at the bottom, if anyone is interested to know why I ended it here. Anyways, THANK YOU to everyone who has reviewed or read! Especially: **Le Grimoire**, **penguininpink**, **aelwyn**, **CharmedLeoLvr**, **Uturnwow**, **PorphyrophobicGrape**, **YamiClara**, **thehpgang** ( I did ponder the use of aging potion, but changed my mind), **i-luv-legolas-greenleaf** (thanks for the 10 :D ), **Samara-Morgan-101**, **Linz005**, **Rane2920072**

Sorry it took me soooo long to update, too. School. Blah. ENJOY :D

* * *

Ginny padded her lower back, as she ran through the front hall and into the kitchen. Once inside, she glared at Hermione, who was standing directly behind her, still panting from the sprint. 

"Did you have to push me?" Ginny shouted, putting more pressure on the part of her back that Hermione attacked.

"You had this look on your face," Hermione responded. "Like you were going to latch yourself to Sirius' face, and we had somewhere to be." Hermione pointed behind Ginny, to where Tonks was sitting, perched up on the kitchen counter.

Tonks kicked her legs back and forth, her eyes squeezed shut. Her fingers gently rocked back and forth against her lips.

"Tonks?" Ginny approached.

"Remus kissed me," Tonks gurgled.

"Yeah, and he seemed really happy about it," Hermione whispered, sarcastically.

"You're a genius, Tonks," Ginny shouted. Tonks eyes sprang open. "I will for now on, follow only the ways of Nymphadora Tonks!"

"I _am_ a genius," Tonks squeaked. "I mean, I don't want to gloat, but…it's pretty obvious."

Ginny nodded, bouncing up and down in place. Hermione looked from Tonks to Ginny. "It wasn't _that_ genius, you know," Hermione said, moving to sit at the kitchen table, in a proper chair, and not on a counter or the floor like a manner-less vagabond. "I could have come up with it."

"But, you didn't," Ginny and Tonks said in unison. Ginny continued to bounce in place, sitting cross legged in the middle of the room.

"Just wait, Hermione," Tonks spoke up. "When you get that Time Turner again-"

"I'm not-"

"And you go back to when Remus was your age-"

"I wasn't planning-"

"And you stalk him down, and impress him with your brain, and then he kisses you; you'll come back to the present time and say "Gee, Tonks, your plan _was_ genius."

Hermione took in a deep gasp of oxygen, releasing it harshly out through her nose. "First of all, that sentence had far too many 'ands' in it. Second, I would never utter the word 'Gee'. Also, if I impressed him with my brain, then I obviously didn't use your plan."

"Ah," Ginny exclaimed. "But, you do admit that you would go back in time and make-out with your former Professor, if given the chance!"

Hermione sighed, dropping her head onto the table.

Tonks slid off the counter, and onto the floor; more because of clumsiness than anything. "Let's get back to me snogging Remus."

"Great plan," Ginny whispered again, in pure awe.

Tonks laughed. "Why do you think it was a great plan? Besides the fact that it just is."

Ginny beamed and straightened her back, pushing the tip of her nose into the air. "I, Ginevra Weasley, have won the bet." She pointed her finger in between her and Hermione. "And it is all thanks to your plan!"

"You mean….Sirius is in love with you?" Tonks voice cracked. She suddenly envisioned Mrs. Weasley blaming her for everything, and smacking her across the back of the skull with a rolling pin.

"Well, he got all nervous when I was acting aloof, and he…he asked me out. Mission accomplished."

"Where is he…uh, taking you?" Tonks asked, choking on her own words. She liked her skull, she liked it very much; it didn't deserve to be abused by a raving red headed lunatic mother.

"No where," Hermione screamed. "He can't leave the house! And you know what? I technically dropped out of this stupid bet, so you won by default."

"I still won," Ginny said.

"He's too old for you," Hermione shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth for extra emphasis.

"Mum and Dad won't like that," Ginny said, tapping her pointer to her chin.

"They'll get over it…like how my mum will get over the fact that I'm dating a werewolf."

"You're not…_argh_!" Hermione jumped to her feet and dragged her fingers through her curls. She suddenly felt like she was on another planet, surrounded by insufferable mental patients. She decided right there that she wasn't going to bother anymore. She was going to return to her books, return to her homework, and pretend like none of this ever occurred. _I never liked Sirius Black_, she repeated in her head. _I don't like Remus Lupin, and I like Ronald…don't like! Don't like!_

The kitchen door swung open with a shudder, making all three girls jump.

Ginny squealed, but bit her lip before it got to loud. "Hello, Sirius," she said, trying desperately to make her voice sound low and inviting.

Sirius nodded at her. Ginny felt her tongue go dry, her heart plummet to her stomach, and her hands start to shake all at the same moment.

Coming up slowly behind Sirius was Remus, staring at the floor and mumbling to himself.

Tonks sprang to her feet, slipping but gripping the sink for support. She leaned to the side, and started dragging her left foot up and down her right calf. "Wotcher, Remus," she said, in her best 'I'm a seductress' voice.

Hermione and Ginny saw Sirius glare at Remus. Remus rolled his eyes, and nodded at Tonks. His eyes flicked to Hermione, and he shook his head.

"Is everything all right, Remus?" Tonks prodded, dropping her fake voice for one of concern.

Sirius elbowed Remus in the arm. Narrowing his eyes into two deadly slits at Sirius, Remus shrugged his shoulders. "I'm fine, thanks," he said, in an almost whisper.

"Um…" Tonks said, as she and Ginny shared a quick funny look.

"Thank you for your interest ladies, adieu," Sirius announced; he saluted, winked, grabbed Remus's arm and escaped into the dining room.

"What was that?" Hermione asked.

Ginny stood. She brushed her hands together, wiping off the dirt they collected from the floor. "I have no clue," she said.

"We can help you there."

All three girls' heads turned to the kitchen door. Fred and George stood there, each leaning causally on part of the door frame.

"…continue," Tonks barked, waving her hand in an impatient circle.

"Sirius and,"

"The Professor," George picked up from his brother. "Have had enough childish games, and have resorted to _aloofly_ acknowledging your existences."

"What?" Tonks and Ginny bellowed in identical shocked tones.

Fred and George nodded, trying to hide the wickedness in their eyes.

"Are you happy?" Hermione spoke up; she glared at Tonks and Ginny from across the room. "You did this. You drove them to ignore us, with your tricks and plans and over eagerness. Now, we're being treated exactly how we should be treated; and frankly I don't mind."

"That's because you're mentally forty-four," Fred commented.

"And you're just mental," Hermione retorted. "Stop talking to Ron." Fred and George shrugged and winked at her for a reason Hermione defiantly couldn't place, before leaving the room.

Hermione turned to look back at Tonks and Ginny, but to her impeccable bad luck, the two had just bounced at full speed into the dining room. She quickly got up to follow them; more curious, then anything.

"Sirius," Tonks called from her place directly in front of him.

Sirius looked up at her, raising his eyebrows.

"Is everything fine?"

"Yes," he said in a toneless voice. He returned his gaze back to the papers spread out before him. Hermione snuck in between Tonks and Ginny to sit down in one of the chairs across from Sirius.

"What's your favorite food?" Tonks asked him. Sirius shrugged one shoulder. "Remus…? Favorite food?" Remus tried to get Sirius' attention by drumming his fingers on the table near his ear. He sighed, and allowed his eyes to meet Tonks. "I like to stay away from meat…when it's not that time…you know."

Sirius' head snapped up. "Aloof," he said in an almost whisper. Tonks and Ginny grinned and left the room.

"Great," Sirius huffed. "Now, they've won…or maybe, they're scared. Either way, there will be retaliation."

Remus picked up a quill and began to cross things off the paper in front of him. "Sirius," he sighed, not even briefly pausing in his work. "This is getting ridiculous."

"Yeah," Hermione spoke up. Both men jumped at the sound of her voice. "Everyone is acting like they're thirteen! Well, I guess Ginny's just acting her age…but still. Tonks! Tonks is shuffling around here like a nutter, completely forgetting the reason for why she _is_ here…like everyone else is I might add. You have to agree with me." She held her hand out, indicating she wanted a response from Sirius.

"Hmm," he said, nodding slightly, but refusing to look at her. All in all, he was acting aloof and Hermione cursed the existence of that word. A loud crash came from the corner of the room, and a streak of giant ears caught Sirius' attention. He muttered something that sounded like 'mental-little-snot nosed-house elf' and left the table.

"It's all the cleaning chemicals," Remus said suddenly, his eyes hiding behind his bangs, but his wide smile lighting up his face. "That's what I've decided anyways. Cleaning chemicals, mixed with the unsettling feeling of what's happening out side these walls. That's what's making everyone act quite out of character."

Hermione melted. She felt her cheeks strain as they were pushed towards her ears by the biggest smile she has ever experienced. "I'll leave you to your work," she said. Remus smiled, happy in the state of not having to entertain his slightly maddened best friend for once.

Hermione choose to completely ignore Sirius currant behavior towards Kreacher, as she practically skipped her way out of the dining room.

Her face itched. She could feel the layers of hardening make-up that Tonks spread over her cheekbones. All she wanted at the moment was to wash her face, grab her book, and wait to get a response from Harry about his birthday presents.

"Hermione?" Hermione froze, mere seconds from opening the door to the bathroom, and glanced over her shoulder. Ron stood behind her, rocking back and forth from one foot to the other.

"Yes," she drawled.

"I, uh, I just wanted to, uh…want to play chess or something?"

"Sure," Hermione chirped. "I just want-"

"Wait," Ron blurted out, holding his hand up. "You're talking to me?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow, and gave him a hard stare. "Of course," she said.

"So," Ron continued. "You're not trying to lure me into your trap so that I may do your bidding?"

Hermione snorted, and almost choked on her own saliva. She couldn't help the vibrating, body shaking laughter that had burst from her lips. "Why…would…you possibly…think…that?" she said, in between gasps of oxygen.

Ron mumbled something that, to Hermione, sounded curiously like 'Fred and George' before furrowing his forehead. "I'll be downstairs if you want to play," he said, not meeting Hermione's eyes.

Hermione moved quickly into the bathroom, to spare Ron more of her boisterous laughter. "Sirius must think…and Remus, too," she whispered to her reflection, referring to the obvious fact that Sirius believes that the girls have ulterior motives besides waving off boredom. "This might be fun," she said; "or a total disaster."

* * *

"We're going to need some sort of large knife," Ginny said, as she slouched over a thick book on the kitchen counter. "It's says right here…we recommend to use chop sticks. It must be a misprint. I reckon they mean _chopped_ sticks…I'll go find some from out side." Ginny shrugged, and reread the recipe, as her feet began to step away from the counter. 

"Ginny," Tonks shouted from her place behind the towering stack of pans she was carrying. The force of her voice, coupled with an untied shoe lace, was enough to cause the whole pile to crash, with extreme noise, to the floor. "_Argh_," Tonks sighed. "Listen forget the recommendations and start getting the ingredients ready."

Ginny's wide eyes settled on the mess around Tonks feet, and then widened even more when Tonks tried to step around the pots, and instead stuck her foot directly into one. She slid across the floor, smacked into the refrigerator and sank to the floor. "I don't know if this is as good of an idea as previously assumed," Ginny said.

Tonks quickly returned to a standing position and made her way, with as much dignity as she had left, back to the counter where Ginny was. "This," she started, jabbing her finger at the large cook book; "is the only good idea we have to get Sirius and Remus to stop acting aloof to us."

"You know, I don't think I care anymore."

"Ginny! Don't utter such nonsense to me! Where's the cooking oil?"

Ginny moved to fetch Tonks the cooking oil. The two decided that they would make an overly complicated dinner for the residents of Grimmauld Place, mostly for Sirius and Remus.

Ginny was bored. Nothing kept her attention for more than a minute. She wished that she could go back to the days when she lusted over Sirius in pure perfected secret. That was fun. That kept her always one step out of boredom's grasp. Now everything was everywhere and not even Ginny's thoughts were safe from her mouth blabbing them.

So that left her and Tonks attempting to cook a meal to impress two men that they really had no business impressing in the first place.

"Cooking oil," Ginny announced, placing the bottle in front of Tonks' face. "Are you sure that a stir fry is an easy thing to do? I kind of think we should avoid anything that requires an open flame."

Tonks brushed her off. She began to charm a couple of knifes, making them chop and dice the arrangement of vegetables and meat, she had spread out on the counter.

"I thought we weren't going to use magic?" Ginny asked.

"You want to lose a finger?" Tonks countered, surveying her hand.

Ginny and Tonks perched themselves on two stools while the charmed utensils worked on their meals. The kitchen slowly became laid with a heavy whitish air. Tonks shrugged Ginny's worries off, and continued to explain the benefits of being a Metamorphmagus.

The smell hit Ginny's nose first. She didn't want to turn around, but it was like someone grabbed her face and forced her to. What she saw sent her almost toppling off her chair.

"…Tonks…" Tonks turned to see what Ginny was pointing at.

Flames. Bright auburn and reaching their strangling fingers towards the ceiling. The charmed utensils were surrounding the fire, as if they too were starring at it in a mix of awe and horrification.

Tonks shook her head, and went into heroine mode. She grabbed her wand, shouted, and a blast of water shot from the tip and into the center of the fire. The flames wavered, died, grew and finally resided to ashes and tiny sparks.

Ginny moved closer to the stove and peered into the two woks that were now crispy and steaming. "Do you think it's still edible?"

* * *

"_Ugh_…_ACK_!" Hermione's head and chest came crashing onto the dining room table. The fork still clenched in her right hand, displayed the cause of her sudden sickness; a charred piece of some kind of unidentifiable meat. 

"You," Mrs. Weasley began, pointing deadly fingers at Ginny and Tonks; "are never again allowed in my kitchen."

"_Your_ kitchen?" Sirius asked, pursing his lips at Mrs. Weasley.

"_ANY_ kitchen," she snapped.

"_Grug_," Remus mumbled, as he too flopped head first onto the table. His arms wrapped around his torso. Hermione wiped a hand across her forehead, gathering more beads of sweat than should ever be allowed.

"Moony?" Sirius asked, prodding Remus's arm.

"_Argle_," Remus grumbled.

"Did you poison Remus?" Sirius scowled at Tonks.

"No," she shouted back.

"Hermione," Mrs. Weasley called, walking over to the young girl. "You're all pale, dear. Are you going to be sick?" Hermione either jerked forward or nodded; no one could tell.

"Why are they the only one's who got sick?" Ginny asked, eyeing the bit of chicken on her fork.

"Because they're delicate," Sirius snapped, as he tried to grab Remus's face.

"I en deli cate," Remus managed, swatting Sirius' hands away. He got up and left the table, following Mrs. Weasley and Hermione into the kitchen.

"Great dinner, girls," Sirius dead panned, pushing his plate away.

"You think mum will make us sandwiches?" Ron asked, also giving up on the half burned, half cooked stir fry.

"I think," Tonks started, rising from her chair. "That tomorrow is August 1st. And it's a Monday. And I'm going to throw myself into my work; because, well Mad Eye has been getting suspicious, but also because, although I like hanging out with you Ginny-" Tonks stopped to smile wide at Ginny, "-I think I may need to get a life."

"I second the motion," Sirius shouted, as he lay across the table, digging through a basket of fruit in the middle.

"Tonks, want to go get some real dinner?" Charlie asked, from the other end of the table.

"Sure!"

* * *

Ginny woke up the next morning to the beautiful sounds of Hermione retching in the corner. 

"Are you still sick?" she questioned drowsily.

Hermione murmured a yes and threw herself back onto her bed. "Which one of you actually did the cooking?"

"Neither," Ginny responded, sitting up in her bed. "That's probably why there's a problem." Hermione groaned and smothered her face into her mattress. "I'll go get you, uh, something soothing to drink," Ginny said, ripping her covers off, and bounding towards the door. She grabbed the knob just as it began to turn on its own. Ginny backed up, allowing room for the door to open. Mrs. Weasley stepped in looking rather agitated, and carrying a tray of food.

"Sorry, Ginny," she started, shuffling over to Hermione's bed. "There is an Order meeting going on, and all who are not involved are to stay out of the way. Therefore, I am restricting you all to your bedrooms. I will have no more _extendable ears_ or sneaking around."

"Mum," Ginny whined.

"Don't mum me! You've caused enough trouble." Mrs. Weasley sat on the edge of Hermione's bed, and handed her a glass of something fizzy. "Poor Professor Lupin is still sick, too."

Hermione drank the contents of the glass, glaring menacingly over the rim at Ginny.

"Well, you can let me go downstairs, and apologize to him?" Ginny asked in what she thought was a slick move.

Mrs. Weasley's answer was a smart smirk, and a slam of their bedroom door.

Ginny flopped back onto her bed, burying her face into her mattress. "This is going to get old fast," she said, raising her head up slightly so that her voice wouldn't be muffled.

"Eh," Hermione replied. "What else is there to do? I think I'd kind of enjoy a day in bed."

"What do you want to talk about?"

Hermione rolled her eyes to the ceiling, focusing in on a small spider scurrying across the tiles. "Not what you want to talk about."

"Sirius?"

"Yes."

"Eh," Ginny said, flipping over so that her head and shoulders were hanging off the side of her bed. "I think he's lost his appeal."

"Did you see the face he made when he thought Remus was poisoned?"

"Precious."

"Mmmhmm."

"Too gorgeous." Ginny paused. "I can't wait to have a boyfriend at school this year."

Hermione coughed out a repressed laugh. "And who's going to be your boyfriend?"

"Haven't decided yet." Ginny sat up; on the outside her face was nonchalant, but on the inside, she was listing her options.

"You can't act normal in front of a boy," Hermione said, smiling toothily at a now very angry looking red head. "I've seen you around Sirius, after all."

"You're one to talk," Ginny retorted.

"I don't pretend to be calm around guys I fancy. I'm only pointing to the obvious."

Ginny sighed. She sprang off her bed, and stood in front of the mirror next to her dresser. "It's different with Sirius; there's almost no chance of a relationship-"

"Almost…?"

"…it's fun to be foolish in front of him. I think he likes it."

Hermione rolled her eyes, and sank into her pillows. She wasn't buying the, 'I don't care how I appear to Sirius Black' lie Ginny was spinning. "I'll bet you another 500 _pretend_ Galleons that you can't go one day without making a fool out of yourself in front of Sirius. And shall I add that my careen towards gambling has been entirely your doing?"

"I've never been prouder," Ginny exclaimed. She sat on the edge of Hermione's bed. A mischievous glint appeared in her eyes, much to Hermione's dislike. "_I'll_ bet you…oh forget the stupid pretend money. I'll just bet…that I can make a better fool out of myself in front of Sirius than you can."

Rubbing her ears, Hermione closed her eyes. "So, you're suggesting that…for the sake of competition…that you can embarrass yourself in front of Sirius, better than I can?"

Ginny nodded; her loose hair flying in front of her face.

"This is a new low," Hermione whispered. "I could be stripped of any strand of intelligence I still have for just agreeing to this."

"Beginning on the release from this prison," Ginny said, casting her eyes around their dull bedroom. "Shake on it." Hermione grabbed Ginny's outstretched hand; and the new bet was formed.

* * *

It was morning the next day, August 2nd, when Ginny and Hermione were finally allowed to exit their bedroom. The faded wallpaper of the outside hall never looked more beautiful. 

Ginny showered and dressed. She skipped excitedly down the stairs, where Hermione was waiting for her, standing stiffly against the banister.

_What?_ Ginny mouthed; disturbing the less than polite painting hidden behind closed drapes next to her, was not what one of her morning goals.

Hermione leaned close to Ginny. "Sirius is brooding," she whispered, it sounding more like a breath than words.

Ginny raised her eyebrows and pointed to the kitchen. _In there?_, she mouthed. Hermione shook her head. She began mouthing some overly complicated sentence, in fast motion.

"You really think I understood any of that?" Ginny said. Both girls glanced at the large curtain next to them, fear blazing in their eyes. Ginny looked back at Hermione, who jerked her head to the side; silently telling Ginny to follow her into the kitchen.

"Snape," Hermione began, once they were in the kitchen; in a normal voice. "Snape said something to Sirius at the meeting, and Sirius tried to hex him. Dumbledore stopped him and, well, scolded him, I suppose. Snape, of course, reveled in the fact that Sirius got yelled at. Now, Sirius is angry at the world, and has locked himself in his room." Hermione ended her speech by gesturing to the ceiling, and trying to casually refill her lungs with air.

"What about the new bet?" Ginny whined, in exasperation.

"What bet?"

Ginny and Hermione snapped to attention, slowly turning and leaning to make innocent eye contact with Mrs. Weasley.

"What bet?" she repeated, with more impatience.

"Morning, mum," Ginny sang, a phony smile plastered over her face. "Hermione and I were just betting on…who could, uh, eat the biggest breakfast! Yep; I am _so_ hungry." Ginny turned to nod at Hermione, who immediately began moving her head in unison.

Mrs. Weasley narrowed her eyes. She jabbed her finger at Ginny's face. "I'll be watching you today," she warned.

* * *

"GINEVRA WEASLEY, GET AWAY FROM THAT DOOR!" 

Ginny practically flew away from Sirius' bedroom door and into a spare room.

"Mum?" she called from inside the room, in her best innocent voice. "Is there something you need?" Ginny heard her mother mumble from the bottom of the staircase.

"How did she know you were there?" Hermione asked, as she opened the door that Ginny was currently huddled behind.

"I have a feeling that upon birth she had the doctor insert some kind of tracking device into my belly button, and I probably show up as a little blip on a map etched into her _palm_, allowing her to know my whereabouts _at every second of the day!_"

Hermione nodded. It did seem plausible.

"Come on," Ginny whispered, slipping out of the spare room. She motioned for Hermione to follow her back over to Sirius' door. When they got there, Ginny placed her ear by the keyhole. "He's sleeping…or exercising."

"In other words, all you can hear is breathing?" Ginny nodded. "You should be an Auror." Hermione yawned and sank to the floor. It was after dinner, and she could all ready feel the pull of sleep. All day she's had to put up with Ginny's scheming, coming up with ways to extract Sirius from his room. She hadn't attempted anything, until now; when the boredom once again became too much.

Ginny fell to her knees. She leaned back, and stuck her hands into her pocket. "What are you doing?" Hermione asked, not really wanting to know. Ginny beamed, and slowly pulled out a long, thin wire. Attached to the end of the wire, was a small round mirror. "Oh…no," Hermione said, shocked that Ginny was going to result to spying.

Ginny nodded. She began feeding the mirror and the wire underneath Sirius's door. When it was in far enough, she laid down, flattening the side of her face into the floor. "I can just make out…a light, or a candle," she said, squinting one eye. Hermione took this moment to sneak back into the spare room. "Now I can only see…uh, well, nothing, it's all dark. Wait," Ginny turned her head a little. "I can see some sort of material…like the fabric of cloak. Maybe if I…" Ginny twirled the wire slightly. Hermione stifled her laughter, as she watched Sirius' bedroom door open, unbeknownst to the red head spy lying sprawled on the floorboards. "Yes! I can see an eye, and black hair. Wow, this mirror must go all the way into the middle of his room! I wonder what he's doing."

"Trying to leave his bedroom."

Ginny's head snapped up, meeting directly with Sirius' smiling grey eyes. "Urf," she squeaked. Sirius laughed, stepped over the shocked and frozen young girl, and strode down the stairs.

Hermione came rolling out of the spare room, laughing like a maniac. "Urf?" she squealed. "_URF?_" Ginny turned around, sending Hermione a death glare. "Well," Hermione said, wiping her eyes. "I guess you won the 'embarrass yourself' bet too."

"Lucky me," Ginny murmured, mortified beyond comprehension.

The two girls stood up, and slowly made their way downstairs. Hermione was still shaking with joy, while Ginny felt like her life was over; how could she ever face Sirius again?

They walked into the sitting room. Ginny did an immediate 180, and tried to walk back out, but Hermione stopped her.

Sitting on one of the couches, was Sirius; still smirking, his dark hair hanging silkily over the left side of his face.

Hermione stopped Ginny from leaving, and pushed her to the opposite couch, where Remus sat. He had the faint look of recent amusement on his face. Hermione flopped down across from Ginny and next to Sirius.

"All right?" Remus asked, glancing at Hermione. Hermione smiled brightly, nodding.

"All right?" Sirius asked, staring at Ginny.

Ginny gulped.

"I think I'm going to have to tell your mum that you were spying on me," Sirius spoke up. Remus and Hermione seemed to both be stifling chuckles.

"I…I…" Ginny tried; she really didn't know what to say. "I was bored."

"That doesn't give you the right to spy on me."

"Are you yelling at me?" Ginny asked, on the verge of panic.

"No. I'm just saying that…well, I could have been naked."

"But you weren't?" Ginny pointed out. "Listen-"

"No, you listen-"

"Both of you listen," Remus interrupted. "Padfoot, two seconds ago you were telling me how you thought it was…_cute_, that Ginny was spying on you; and-"

"I did not say that," Sirius shouted, blushing slightly. "We just all need to stay away from each other, I think."

"And how are we supposed to do that? When we're all stuck in the same house?" Hermione asked.

"_We_ can leave," Ginny said, looking at Hermione.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Sirius' voice started to adopt a slight edge.

"Hey, that's not our fault," Hermione said, softly. "I think you need to calm down a little."

"Sirius, Hermione is right-"

"Of course you think _she's_ right, Moony."

"What does that mean?" Remus asked; though by his blush, it was obvious that he knew.

"OK. Everyone just needs to keep to themselves. I think-"

"Oh, no one cares what _you think_," Ginny spoke up. "You're the one that started this whole thing!"

"_What?_"

Ginny nodded. "If you didn't-" Ginny paused and took one look at Sirius. She didn't want to come right out and say that if Hermione never flirted with Sirius, and made her jealous, none of the betting would have started. "It just is," she finished.

"Wow, good explanation," Hermione dead panned.

"We're all just bored," Sirius shouted. "That's it! Bored and, and,"

"There's nothing to do," Ginny picked up.

"I have things to do," Remus said, evicting a nod of agreement from Hermione.

"Oh shut up, Remus," Sirius spat.

And so began the great argument. Sirius and Ginny shouted about being bored, and stuck in this house, and feeling useless. While Remus and Hermione gently explained that there were many things to do, and that Sirius and Ginny, respectively, just didn't want to do them.

Sirius was on his feet. During a pillow throwing scuffle, Hermione and Ginny switched places, so that Hermione was now sitting next to a relaxed, vaguely interested Remus.

"Well, if you didn't suggest charades," Ginny shouted, pointing at Hermione; the fight now changing directions completely.

"There was nothing else to do!"

"There's _never_ anything to do," Ginny and Sirius shouted in complete unison.

"Excuse me." All four heads snapped to the door. Mr. Weasley was standing there, a piece of parchment clenched in his hands. "Harry has been attacked by Dementors." He swallowed the forming lump in his throat, and offered the note in his shaking hand.

Sirius sank to his seat, and Remus sprang for the parchment. Ginny and Hermione shared a confused, scared look.

And suddenly, there was plenty to do.

_fine_

A/N #2: I decided to end the fic here because now Harry comes, and if you want to know what happens...read OotP. I know I could have kept going and did the story from Ginny's or Hermione's POV, but there is so much going on, that there wouldn't be time for nonsense games and all that fun stuff. Even though this has been silly and very out of character in places, I wanted it to be somewhat related to the canon. What I will be doing is picking this up with one shots. Thanks again!


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